Shuugi Chousenjou
by Yemi Hikari
Summary: This is my one-shot collection for the challenge called "Bleach: Shuuji Chousenjou". The one-shots will vary.
1. 1:1:1 Monday's Child

_Disclaimer – I do not own Bleach. This is for the challenge called "Bleach:Shuuji Chousenjou" which can be found on my "Challenge Paradise: Bleach" forum in case you want more information. The rating may be upped if I write a one-shot with an M rating. It is going to be a compilation of one-shot collection. _

_This is Week 1: Challenge 1 ~ part 1. Use each trait from the poem Monday's Child to write a one-shot._

_**Summary: **__The story involves Toshiro and Rangiku and possibly Gin+Ran. Toshiro has a bad day in this as well and reacting to the outside stimulant for once. The idea is also an older idea I had floating around my head for some time as well. (Rated T)_

**Monday's Child  
**_~Monday's child is fair of face~_

Whispers followed Toshiro as he headed to the first division meeting hall. The boy tried to focus his mind on the fact he and the other captains had been summoned to the first division, meaning that there was something a lot more important for him to be worrying about rather then the whispers that seemed to follow him where ever he had he went as of late. His ears couldn't help but pick up the gossip and he found himself suddenly stopping short of one group that hadn't realized that he was there and thus hadn't stopped speaking.

"... that child taicho, I'm honestly worried about whether or not he'll turn out to be like Ichimaru Gin. That boy's personality as well as looks are just like that mans, not to mention he's also a child genius."

"The way he doesn't socialize with others is also bothersome, so it seems like he doesn't care about getting close to anyone."

"It's not just that. That boy has a way of watching people just like Ichimaru did. It is creepy the way he stares at us, as if he's trying to take us in and figure us out so that he can kill us while he sleeps."

"Excuse me..." The sound of Toshiro's voice caused the three females to look up in shock as they realized he had over heard them. He then brushed by them and headed towards the meeting hall, hearing them comment about their horror at having him overhear their inane gossip. His small hand reached out to open the door and he found himself slipping in.

The meeting was boring as usual and while it in the long run ended up being about something important that the captains needed to know about, it in the long run ended not being something he in particular had to worry about. His body felt stiff as well as overly hot due to the weather being much warmer then he liked. He spun on his heals and headed to that divisions bathroom, only to find himself coming face to face with a bunch of adults who gave him strange looks.

As they brushed past him, he heard the name Ichimaru Gin uttered by these men, causing him to close his eyes. "_Seriously... the Winter War has ended and they're trying to find some kind of scape goat because hey can't take their anger out on him._"

"_You're likely right this is the reason that ugly gossip is going around, so you should ignore it._"

The child taicho walked over to the sinks and turned on the tap, allowing the water to fill his hands before splashing the cold substance over his face. He then opened his eyes, looking at the mirror in front of him. The urge to bite the tip of his tongue or the side of his mouth to prevent the feelings he felt rising up in his chest as he looked at the visage reflected in front of his face. He took a deep breath, trying to control his thoughts.

The problem came from the fact the gossip wasn't simply a matter of a candid once in awhile moment. The barrage felt like it was a constant stream that he had at first imagined as he personally felt the other taicho wouldn't allow such gossip to continue, but it became very apparent that they had not yet come to know about the said conversations that were going on or were to focused on fixing things to do something about the problem.

"_The easiest solution would be if I didn't look like this._"

"_Don't go there. Actually, calm yourself down._"

The corner of Toshiro's mouth twitched and he saw the clone in the mirror's mouth also twitch, almost as if the clone was mocking him and the feelings he was trying to hold back. It was as if the image in front of him was telling him that he shouldn't be feeling anything and that he was a fool to be allowing what the others said get to him. And in a way he was.

The problem lay in the fact he honestly hadn't gotten over the time before, the time when the villagers around him treated him like a monster because of the way he looked as well as his odd personality. This time around he was finding himself a target because of someone else because certain people had made a startling connection between him and that man.

This of course caused his mind to twist and turn as he attempted to reconcile the idea that he wasn't a monster, that he wasn't anything like Gin. But his mind kept coming back to the same conclusion that the others had. He was too similar and his mind kept coming to the conclusion that there was a high chance that he could turn out to be like the man, something he didn't want to happen.

As he stared at his dripping wet face, he couldn't help put notice that his hair dampened the way it was made him look even more like that man, causing his lower lip to pull in with frustration. He could also feel his body tremble from the frustration he felt. He felt as if he needed to let that frustration out before something bad happen.

The sound of glass breaking came to his ears as well as a painful feeling in his hand. As his vision cleared of the red mist he saw that the mirror was cracked as well as bloody. His hands came up to hold his head as he backed up to lean against the bathroom stalls. The door opened and he heard the voice of the first division fukutaicho. "Hitsugaya Taicho?"

The man walked in and eyes the mirror before quietly going to the other side of the child taicho. He touched the boy's shoulders and turned him around so that they could leave the bathroom. Toshiro's hands fell to his side and his eyes refused to look up from the ground. He had an idea where the man was leading them and said place was confirmed when he heard the head taicho's voice.

"Hitsugaya Taicho? What have you done this time?"

The boy remained silent causing the third party to speak up. "For some reason he smashed the mirror in the lavatory."

"I'm sorry."

"Now why would you go and do that?" Toshiro remained silent, wishing that the head captain would simply lecture him. "Sasakibe, could you take the tenth division taicho to the fourth division to get his hand bandaged. Also, make sure his fukutaicho is aware of the situation."

The child taicho flinched as the head captain said this, knowing that getting a lecture from Rangiku was the worst kind of punishment he could ever receive. Despite knowing this he followed the man to the fourth, his shoulders slumping as he held his right hand in his left. He then sat on the bed as one of the fourth division members removed glass from the injuries.

"Taicho?" The sound of his fukutaicho speaking to him caused him to look up at her wide eyed. "What ever possessed you to punch a mirror like you did." Instead of answering Rangiku he looked down at the ground. "This wouldn't happen to have anything to do with the gossip that's been going around?"

"So what? Are you going to be telling me that it's just gossip?" The words came out of his mouth unintentionally.

"Actually, I was hoping no one was talking in front of you and I hoped to put a stop to it before you found out." The woman stepped forward, her arms crossed across her chest and her lips were twisted up into a frown. "Why didn't you tell me? Why did you let your emotions boil over like they did?" When he didn't respond, she spoke up. "You're not him."

"I know we're two different people." The boy looked at the ground. "I'm not blind to the fact we're very similar to each other."

"I see. Well..." Rangiku stopped short, thinking about what she had to say carefully. "I always liked the way he looked."

"Say what?" Toshiro looked up at her, the corners of his eyes wrinkling up due to his profound confusion as she said this. "Shouldn't you be telling me something like I won't end up like him? No, seriously... I don't want to end up like that man, so why aren't you bringing it up."

"Because you already know that you're different enough that you won't end up like him and even if you don't know that you're thinking about not becoming like him and that in itself is likely to prevent you from becoming like him." The woman sat down next to him. "I think this is you having problems with the way that you look again."

"Really? I don't see it that way."

"That's because you don't want to think about the fact you don't like the way you look. I'm telling you though I very much like the way you look. You are a very beautiful child and should let that be enough for you."

"Why?"

"Because even if every other person including yourself thinks you're an ugly ogre I think that you're beautiful. You're hair is the color of snow when it just falls and is just as soft. You could say that it is as soft as a bunny as well. Your eyes are also a beautiful color, even prettier then Gin's ever was as there is more life in them."

"Matsumoto... you do realize guys don't want to hear these things."

"That's because most males know they wouldn't get to hear these kinds of compliments from women."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"That's because... I know. What are some of the compliments you've heard guys pay me?" Toshiro's mouth opened and closed. His teal eyes drifted down to her chest area. He then looked back up at her eyes and pointed a finger at her chest. "Um... yeah. You don't like saying that word, which is so cute."

"Matsumoto..."

"What do women say about such comments?"

"That I can say out loud. Females say it is rude to comment on a woman's assets."

"In reality that's because they're jealous."

"No, it's because such comments objectify the person."

"Um..." Rangiku paused. "Well, there is that. It depends on the wording."

"Give me an example I can understand."

"You have a nice set of abs by the way."

"Matsumoto!"

"Those kind of comments."

"Yeah, but talking about..." Toshiro pointed his finger at her chest. "... that, how is that different? Shouldn't a guy simply tell a girl that she has a nice figure, that her hair's a nice color?"

The woman blinked a couple of times. "You're right, I'm wrong this time. What I'm trying to tell you though is I think you are a very handsome young man. Your looks aren't as big of a turn off as you think they are."

The boy glanced at his hand. "Even so, I don't think this has to do with just me hating the way I look. I think I am honestly afraid of becoming like him."

"But you won't. You're aware of it and I trust you not to. Plus..." Rangiku placed a hand over his heart. "This has always been your strong point. Deep down you're a pacifist, albeit at times a bit sadistic in the way you go about things. You're the type person who wants the least amount of people hurt because you are honestly a caring person and you unlike him are at least willing to admit you care about others."

"He admitted he cared about you?"

"Only me though." The woman let out a deep sigh. "Promise me you won't do something like this again?"

"Yes mam." Worse then her lectures was when she played the guilt trip card.


	2. 1:1:2 Tuesday's Child

_This is Week 1: Challenge 1 ~ part 2. Use each trait from the poem Monday's Child to write a one-shot._

_**Summary: **__This story involves Toshiro watching Rangiku as she teaches as well as practices traditional dance. (Rated K)  
_

**Tuesday's Child  
**_~Tuesday's child is full of grace~_

The air felt stuffy due to the warm weather, causing the child taicho's eyelids to try and nod off. The white haired boy sat up in a wooden area, waiting for the weather to cool off so that he could go back into the office that evening and finish up that dreaded paperwork. Until then it had gotten to the point he couldn't handle being in the office anymore. He felt his head snap back up as he realized that he had almost fallen asleep.

"Taicho?" The sound of his fukutaicho's voice caused the boy to tilt in a manner that caused him to fall out of the tree. He landed hard on the ground, letting out a groan due to the sudden pain. His bright teal eyes then looked up at her pale blue ones. The obvious worry she showed for him caused his mouth to twitch. "I'm heading to the dance hall."

"I see... you don't have to tell me that. I know you go there twice a week to teach the class on traditional dance."

"I brought it up because I wanted to know if you wanted to come with me."

"I told you... I don't want lessons."

"I brought it up not because I want to force you to take a lesson, but because the dance hall actually has air conditioning. You can take a nap back stage."

Toshiro let out a sigh and looked away. "Matsumoto... I shouldn't be barging in places just so I can take naps in comfort."

"You wouldn't be barging in as you'll be with me. On top of this I would like you to actually get a good nap as you can be a major pain when you don't get one like you want. So please?"

The boy stood up and dusted himself off. "All right, all right. I'm only doing this because it makes you happy."

"Thank you. It _does_ make me happy." He then fell in step behind her and upon arriving at the place Matsumoto preformed her dances he slipped backstage into a cranny that was the right size for himself. A half yawn escaped his mouth and he closed his eyes, letting the chill lull him asleep. He woke up upon hearing the sound of music playing and sat up in a groggy manner. His feet touched the ground of the wooden floor behind the stage before his body propelled to a side area where he could watch them practicing.

The child captain's bright teal eyes watched the dances as his head nodded in time with the music. Without realizing what he was doing, his right hand went out with the same timing that the dancers did, his mind still groggy from his nap. Carefully he moved in time from the sides, mimicking the movements that the girls were doing. No one seemed to notice or care that he was doing this.

On top of this, moving in the manner felt good as well as relaxing. He closed his eyes a few times, sill mimicking the dance as he went along as he had seen this one before. When he opened them he caught sight of Rangiku looking right at him as the girls continued to practice unnoticed. The fact she had seen him caused him to suddenly balk before hurrying back stage. He found himself tripping over something and causing a rather loud racket.

He found himself cursing under his breath as the music stopped, knowing full well that Rangiku was coming back to check on him. Toshiro sat where he was, placing one hand on his cheek while he sulked. It almost felt as if he was a little kid caught with an overly large hand full of candy. He could hear footsteps and then his fukutaicho's voice. "You know... you're really good despite having no real lessons at this."

"I'm not in the mood."

"Yes... yes. Particularly when you tripped over something like a klutz." Rangiku went and stood in front of him, offering her hand to help him up. "If you want, I can teach you privately so that no one will know."

"Matsumoto..." Toshiro's hand remained in a position where he didn't touch her hand. Something about what she said wasn't a bad idea, but the thought of someone finding out bothered him.

The woman grabbed his hand and tugged him up. "If anyone asks we're doing it to refine your coordination, particularly since your bodies having to adjust to your latest growth spurt."

"As much as I appreciate you trying to butter me up, I haven't grown."

"Taicho... you have grown. You may not have noticed, but I have. I think its because I've noticed that your coordination has been off lately."

"Really? If that were true then why did you say I was very good at it despite not having any real lessons."

"Because..." Rangiku let out a sigh. ":Look you're movements _are _off despite the fact I've seen you preform these same moves flawlessly. I'm seeing the same thing in the other things you do. Please... let me help you. This honestly is the only way I can think of to help you."

"Did you trick me into coming to the dance hall with the air conditioning and the fact it would make you happy just to get me to take lessons from you?"

"No... I..." The female frowned before shaking her head and closing her eyes. "No, I didn't. I'd be happy if you would learn traditional dance from me, but dragging you along tonight completely had to do with the fact I didn't want you to get heat sick. You were getting real close to it this afternoon despite the fact you didn't notice. Speaking of which... go get something to drink now that you've had your nap."

"Yes mam." The boy narrowed his eyes and headed off to the water fountain that had been set up. The cold liquid helped him to wake up and soon he was back watching the lessons again. "_Sorry Rangiku... I don't think I can take dance with you simply because you're my subordinate. If I was still third seat and you the fukutaicho it wouldn't be so much of a problem. People's impression of the situation would be way different._"


	3. 1:1:3 Wednesday's Child

_This is Week 1: Challenge 1 ~ part 2. Use each trait from the poem Monday's Child to write a one-shot._

_**Summary: **__Toshiro and Ichigo talk about death and the grief that comes with it. (Rating T)_

**Wednesday's Child  
**_~Wednesday's child is full of woe~_

"Kurosaki..." The voice came from the window of Ichigo's bedroom window. The substitute shinigami paused in his homework, instantly recognizing the voice of the child taicho. The window was open and when he turned to look at the window to see the small taicho sitting there, his arms crossed across his chest, a frown plastered on his face. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, why not Toshiro."

It's captain Hitsugaya..." Two bright teal eyes rolled back into his head and Ichigo could see the corner of the child captain's mouth twitch up as the boy tried to hide his amusement. "No, seriously. How do you deal with someone dying?"

Ichigo's eyes widened and his mouth opened as he stared at the small taicho. Eventually he reached up to scratch his head. "Well.. I didn't exactly expect you to ask me such a personal question. Why did this even come up?"

"Hinamori told me that I'm an emotionless bastard... except she didn't use the last word." The boy continued to watch the sun set over the buildings.

"Hinamori... she's..." The orange haired teen paused. "She's the girl Aizen tricked you into stabbing during the Winter War."

"She's also my foster sister. Since she and I grew up together she would know that I'm emotionless, right?"

"Yes... well, maybe. Why did she even bring up the fact you were emotionless and how did this lead to you asking me how I react to someone dying?"

"Her pet gerbil died."

Ichigo felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "I don't think that's the same thing as someone you actually know and care about dying. You weren't attached to the gerbil, were you?"

"No. Absolutely not. Actually, she'd only had the stupid thing a few days and came sobbing to me about how it had died and then expected me to empathize with the poor thing. I made the mistake of telling her it was likely better of. Didn't tell her the reason her stupid gerbil was better off was because she likely killed it."

"I'm glad you didn't say that to her. Hands down she likely wasn't looking for sympathy for the gerbil."

"That makes no sense."

"Well, I can't tell unless I actually know the conversation she had with you."

"She said, "_Shiro-chan..._" in that annoying way she has of calling me that stupid nickname "_fluffy died._" I then say, "_So? He's likely better off," _without saying she did ended up in the long run killing it. She then says, "_Shiro-chan, you're an emotionless little..._" she then clapped her hand over her mouth and hurried off."

"She was likely wanting you to sympathize with her and not the gerbil Toshiro."

"As if I could. I told her when she came up with the idea not to get herself a pet that it wasn't a good idea. She's... not exactly the brightest person in the world."

"Toshiro... isn't she a fukutaicho? Plus, how do you know its her fault that her gerbil is dead?"

"Oh, I knew full well it wasn't her fault when I said that. I'm the one who switched her gerbil out for a dead hamster. I didn't say she was irresponsible, I said she wasn't the brightest person in the world. You would think that a person would be able to tell the difference between a gerbil and a hamster. I left the gerbil on my fukutaicho's desk, but did Hinamori notice. No... she did not."

Ichigo felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "That was a rather mean thing to do."

"Matsumoto very much agrees with you on that. I may be her taicho, but she isn't afraid to tan my hide when I do something like that."

"How though did this lead to you asking me how I deal with grief?"

"My fukutaicho majorly laid into me and after having buried the pretend fluffy thing and having the real fluffy thing returned to her Hinamori started yelling at me about being an emotionless freak. That was a few days ago and it got me to thinking about how I don't think I've ever really grieved for someone."

"What about that classmate of yours who died?"

"It didn't feel like he had died at the time... which to be honest if you think about it..."

"Ichimaru?"

"He's not dead."

"Despite the fact that's how it is down in the records. Um... how about your former taicho?"

"Not dead... though I did lose my temper at anyone who insisted he was dead or a moron."

"Uh-huh." Ichigo shook his head at the boy. "Is that really what happened?"

"Fine. I didn't just yell at everyone that taicho wasn't dead, I bawled my head off as well."

"That's a form of grieving you know."

"He's _not_ dead."

"And how do you know that?" Ichigo frowned at the boy, watching as Toshiro stared at him with a rather blank look.

"If you don't know my answer for that, then you don't need to know. But since my feeling of him not being dead was right on, my feeling that Ichimaru isn't dead is also spot on." The boy moved into the room and sat in a traditional style on the bed. "It's not that I wasn't always this way, I think I had emotions once, but when I became a shinigami... I don't feel like I've felt any real emotions."

"If you know you've had emotions before, why do you suddenly think you don't?"

"How can you tell if you're feeling something, anything?" Toshiro frowned. "My inner world is a complete sheet of ice with no changes to it. That's how it feels like when it comes to my emotions. It's always the same. I worry that I'm becoming like Ichimaru."

"Uh... well, I do experience a chance in my inner world. It rains when I'm upset about something."

"See though, I've never had that kind of thing occur. It's always the same whenever I check. Hinamori wouldn't have called me emotionless if it weren't true."

"Haven't you asked Ran-san about this? She's been around you longer, but knowing her she'll have the same opinion as me that you're not emotionless. I've seen you have emotions."

"I tried asking her, only to have her give me this horrified look. She then covers her mouth like she's going to throw up and her eyes narrow at me in this very stern manner. I haven't pushed more as I don't want to be punished again."

"Of she could be trying to hide the fact she's laughing at you." Ichigo watched the expression on the boy's face suddenly pale. Toshiro's cheeks then flushed up. "For someone who says they have no emotions they are definitely acting embarrassed right about now."

"I am not! I..." The boy frowned then, looking at the bed sheet again. "What you says implies that I do have emotions but do not know how to identify them or even handle them properly."

"Yes... no... I mean..." Ichigo looked the boy in the face. "Most likely what you say is true."

"What would ever happen then if I were to ever feel the need to actually grieve over someone. I can't control my feelings when I start feeling them."

"Toshiro... you just said that you've been emotionless for some time."

"So feeling things is emotions."

"This conversation is going no where." The orange haired teen felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "But if you ever lost it and didn't feel you could control yourself I'll come for you and make things calm down."

"Really?" The small taicho moved back to the window. "I'm not understanding why that is making me feel better right now, but I have the feeling what you said is a good thing. See you later Kurosaki."

**M**

The rain fell down on the small taicho's shoulders as he headed to the small house in the Rukongai. The conversation between him and the substitute shinigami had occurred a few days ago and he honestly felt better, though what he felt better about he honestly did not know. He covered his head with his arms as he relaxed. The rain allowed him to approach the place without being seen by any of the residents.

A light flickered into his vision, causing the small boy to stop walking. Realization hit him that the place was his grandmothers. Toshiro wondered why she would have the lights on this late at night and began to walk again to her place. When he got close enough to the house, he could hear voices coming from the place. He carefully stepped onto the deck next to the house and then into the doorway. He found himself pausing, his throat tightening.

His grandmother lay in her futon, fast asleep while a few members of the village remained close by. He found the tightening increasing. "_She's dying... why else would they be here._"

A hand went to his mouth as his stomach flinched due to the need to suddenly pull back his reiatsu. One of the people looked up, surprised to see him. "Hitsugaya-san... what are you doing here?"

Another of the three looked up. "You're a taicho?"

The boy felt himself suddenly backing up, turning to head away as the panic kept growing in his chest. He felt one of his sandals snap off as he kept moving with his reiatsu in check. He also tumbled once as he hurried along. Finally though he felt that he could no longer take it and crumbled up, his reiatsu flaring out as he let out a scream. As this occurred a sudden ice storm flared up. "_Someone... make this feeling stop!_"

"Toshiro?" The sound of the substitute shinigami sounded faint through the storm. "Hitsugaya Toshiro, it's Kurosaki Ichigo." Finally the substitute said something else. "It's Ichi-nii."

"I...chi...nii." The panic that Toshiro had felt subsided as did the storm. He could feel a pair of strong arms wrapped around his chest area.

"Calm down, what happened?" Ichigo received no response from the boy and instead scooped him up into his arms. "What ever is bothering you at this point in time?"

"Granny... she's..." The boy's eyes snapped shut before passing out. The next thing he knew he was waking up in the forth division. One of his hands covered his eyes, causing him to realize it had been bandaged.

"Ah... your up." Toshiro turned his head to look in the direction where the voice had come from. Ichigo was also bandaged up and was sitting up in bed smiling at him.

"You got injured because I lost it."

"You got injured as well. Apparently there is only so much even your body can handle."

"Shiro-chan!" Toshiro flinched as the shrill voice came to his ears. Momo hurried forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. "You stupid idiot! Granny isn't dead! She was just really sick!"

"I..." The small taicho frowned, letting her latch onto him. "Granny is all right?"

"Hey... Toshiro." The substitute shinigami spoke up at that point. "You know how you said your inner world is always snowing. Maybe it isn't because you're emotionless like you think. Maybe its because you're constantly hurting but haven't taken the time to talk to anyone about it, or do anything about your feelings.


	4. 1:1:4 Thursday's Child

_This is Week 1: Challenge 1 ~ part 4. Use each trait from the poem Monday's Child to write a one-shot._

_**Summary: **__The new taicho... who were once old taicho... find out how much of a child Toshiro still is. (Rating T)_

**Thursday's Child  
**_~Thursday's child has far to go~_

Shinji took a deep breath as he placed his hands in his pockets and headed through the gate back to Soul Society with Kensei, Rojuro and Mashiro. The fact the others didn't want to return honestly bothered him, but arguing with Hiyori about whether they should go or stay honestly was going nowhere at all. He stepped through the gate into their old home, only to find himself bumping into someone.

Looking down, he saw that he had knocked the small taicho of the tenth division onto his bottom. Shinji watched as the bright teal eyes went wide and the boy's mouth dropped open. Shinji continued to frown at the boy, raising an eyebrow as he did so. Kensei though let out an irritated sound. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Greeting the... there are only four of you. I though there would be eight." Toshiro raised a finger as he counted the four of them again.

Rojuro shook his head. "We were given the option of coming home or staying home. The others had their reasons for staying."

"The..." Toshiro's mouth snapped shut as he looked up at Shinji.

Mashiro bent down to look the boy in the face. "Is this some new kind of cosplay?"

"What is... cosplay?" The boy blinked a couple of times before shaking his head. He stood up and brushed off his clothing, turning after this to look Shinji straight in the face. "Are you the leader?"

"Him?" Kensei hiked a finger at them. "Why are you talking about us as if we're some rouge group."

"No... I meant..." The bright teal eyes blinked a couple of times. "Head of the family?"

"You see us as a family?" A smile spread across Mashiro's face before she hugged the small taicho tightly. "So cute!"

"Um... yeah... well, isn't that how it works in the Rukongai... you form family units not based on blood ties?"

"Don't you have anything against us?" Shinji shook his head at the boy.

"No..." The boy paused. "Which one of you is likely going to take over the fifth division?"

"I'll likely am going to take over. Do you have a problem with that?"

"No. I don't have a problem with any of you taking over the captains positions. You're never seemed like an enemy. No... actually, the person whose likely to have a problem is the current fukutaicho. She's..." Toshiro paused, the corners of his mouth twisting down. "That's beside the point! I came here to greet you!"

"And why isn't the head taicho here?" Kensei folded his arms across his chest.

"I told him I can handle it."

Rojuro's mouth dropped open. "Should we be taking that as an insult?"

The boy's cheeks puffed out. "I would like to know what you're implying here."

Mashiro placed a finger to her mouth. "I don't get... oh! It's insulting because you're a little kid."

"I am _not_ a little kid!"

Shinji pointed a finger at the boy's chest. "Let's say the head taicho _didn't _let you take this on yourself, would you assume that he was treating you like a kid?"

"Of course!" The words came out of his mouth with great earnest. The boy's eyes widened again once he realized what he had said as well as his cheeks reddening. "I mean..."

"Ah... looks like the old man wasn't trying to insult us Rose. He's trying to stop the kid from throwing a tantrum."

"I told you. I'm not a little kid. Anyways, Ukitake and Kyoraku _both_ backed me up when I requested and said I was a good choice, so it isn't a matter pacifying me. I also know that they would have been better candidates as would anyone else who knew you guys from way back then. It's just..." Toshiro paused. "For some reason certain people don't like you guys."

Kensei let out a deep sigh. "Look, that shouldn't be surprising really. We were exiled over a hundred years ago."

"But you guys aren't bad guys. I don't get bad vibes from you like I did Aizen or Tosen."

Mashiro let out a laugh. "You didn't mention Gin-chan?"

Toshiro tilted his head away. "Ichimaru... I never got negative vibes from him."

Shinji stopped short and turned to look at the boy, only to have Toshiro crash into his back. "Say what?"

Two bright teal eyes blinked as the small taicho backed away holding his nose. Upon taking a deep breath the child taicho waved his hands. "I don't mean that he... I mean..."

The short blond turned and looked at the boy, watching as the corner of the child's mouth twitched. "Just spit it out. You are a taicho aren't you?"

"I know full well that Ichimaru made a lot of people feel uncomfortable, but I never felt that way around him."

"So in other words you're one of the few people he couldn't hide his true self from."

"Ah... no. That would be..." Toshiro snapped his mouth shut.

"Shinji..." Kensei glowered at the small taicho. "Something bothering you."

"Not especially." The man continued to walk along. "Be glad that you're one of the few people who got to know the kid before he died."

"Ichimaru isn't dead."

The one with the short blond hair turned to the boy. "Say what?"

"There was no funeral. Plus... wait... you said one of the few people who got to know him... you knew Ichimaru when he was younger?"

"Oi... exactly what kind of negative influence did Ichimaru have on you?"

"None... I don't want to end up like him." Toshiro tilted his head again. "Again... did you..."

"Yes... he used to be my third seat when he was a kid."

"So... Ichimaru also used to be his taicho's third seat." The boy continued to follow them.

"Look, I don't want to talk about him."

"Yes... if you knew him, did you also know Matsumoto when she was younger? She would have graduated the same year as Ichimaru as she was classmates with him."

Shinji paused, turning to look at the boy. "Gin and Ran-chan weren't classmates?"

"Then how come they know each other?"

"What other way would they know each other?"

"Friends?"

Shinji paused, frowning at the boy. "Kiddo... do you know how babies are made."

"Unohana taicho makes them in the forth division." This caused the three older males to burst out laughing.

Mashiro blinked a couple of times. "What is so funny?"

"I... did I say something wrong."

Kensei covered his mouth. "The way babies are made... and your statement... I can't imagine Unohana doing that of all things."

"What? Making babies is just making babies, right?"

Rojuro placed a hand to his mouth. "Shinji... should we tell him how babies are made?"

"I know!" Mashiro raised her hand. "Babies are created by having sex. So by him saying that Unohana is making babies he just said that she is having lots of sex."

"Um..."

"Can you imagine her..." Kensei continued to laugh.

Toshiro spoke up, his cheeks quite red. "Actually. I can. I suggest not saying that her libido is off in front of her. Or telling her that she can't wear a revealing bathing suit for that matter."

The three males suddenly paled while Mashiro bounced forward. 'She wore a revealing bathing suit? What did it look like?"

"Um... ah. It was completely backless."

"So wait... how did you end up seeing her in a bathing suit?" The words came choking out of the mans mouth.

"I've actually seen the entire woman's society in their bathing suit. What's the big deal with that."

Shinji let out a deep sigh as the other twos jaws dropped. "Keep in mind this is the kid who up until a few minutes ago thought babies were made by means other then sex. They don't see him as a threat."

"Kurosaki and some other guys were there as well."

"Kurosaki is oblivious as well." Mashiro added in.

"Abarai isn't."

The three males pulled back. Rojuro shook his head. "How did the kid ever become captain?"

"Well, he isn't stupid. He's just..."

"Innocently naive about things." Shinji stated. "Hey... what were you telling me about my possible fukutaicho?"

"Hinamori? She's a major pain to work with. She refuses to call me by my title, let alone my last name. It's always Shiro-chan."

"Wait... this wouldn't happen to be the girl you stabbed and then went ballistic on?" Shinji shook his head at the boy.

"Yes..."

"What exactly is your relationship with her?" Kensei frowned, folding his arms across his chest.

"We grew up together raised by granny."

"Ah, well... if she's such a pain maybe I won't keep her as my fukutaicho."

"Don't care so long as you don't send her to my division." Toshiro turned to look at the man, only for the heel of his foot to hit something, causing him to fall over again.


	5. 1:1:5 Friday's Child

_This is Week 1: Challenge 1 ~ part 5. Use each trait from the poem Monday's Child to write a one-shot._

_**Summary: **__For once it's Matsumoto who isn't feeling well._

**Friday's Child  
**_~Friday's child is loving and giving~_

The brush of the small taicho swished across the paper work in a smooth, precise manner. The boy remained focused on the paperwork and didn't look up with the door slid open. He did however speak. "You're late."

"Sorry taicho."

"Sorry?" Toshiro looked up from his paperwork, frowning as he did so. The woman places a hand on her forehead as if she had a headache. "Are you feeling all right? You don't have a hangover do you?"

"I didn't go out drinking last night taicho." Rangiku's hand reached for the paperwork on her desk, only for her hand to miss and instead end up knocking the papers to the ground. Toshiro watched as she stared at the ground as well as the papers she had managed to spill.

"I'll get them." Toshiro stood up and walked over while she in turn looked up to stare as he approached.

When he got close enough to bend over to pick up the papers. "Um... taicho."

"I said I'll get them." The boy stooped down to the ground and quickly picked up the papers in his hands and then deposited them onto the desk. He looked at the woman then, taking in the pale skin that had a green tinge to it. "Matsumoto, are you feeling all right?"

"I'm fine."

"No... you..." The boy paused before stepping forward. A small hand reached out to brush the hair away from her forehead.

"Taicho, are you trying to flirting with me? As much as I like the fact you're..."

"Baka!" The boy leaned forward to touch his forehead to hers, only to jerk back upon touch. "I was right, you do have fever."

"Taicho... I'm fine."

"Go to bed Matsumoto. You're not fine at all."

**M**

A clinking sound woke her, causing the fukutaicho's head to throb. She sat up, causing the problem to worsen. A small figure came into focus near her bed, causing her to frown. "Taicho... what are you doing in my room?"

"I brought you some tea and medicine. I've finished my paperwork, so I'll keep you company."

The woman stared at the white haired boy for a few minutes. "Do you remember when I asked if you were flirting with me?"

Toshiro stared at her, his bright teal eyes unblinking. When he got no response from her he spoke with a calm voice. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Why didn't you respond?"

"I think the appropriate response that I've heard you use is that you're not my type." Rangiku laughed, only to break into a fit of coughing. "I don't see what is so funny about what I said."

"Do you even know what that means?"

"Not really. I'm assuming it means that a person isn't interested at least. It's a way of telling someone that they're not interested without saying they're ugly, or have a repulsive personality, but also not admitting that they've got good looks or have an interesting personality. How close am I?"

"So close and yet so far!" Rangiku giggled, coughing again. "You're actually _almost_ my type."

"What?" Toshiro's eyes narrowed while his mouth twisted up into a frown.

"I was just thinking that you practically match my type except for the fact you're a kid."

The small taicho first stared at her then turned to pour her tea. "Because you're ill I'll mark that kid comment as a slip of the tongue."

"No! It wasn't a slip of the tongue."

"Matsumoto..."

"What I mean by that is the age gap between you and me... I'm old enough to be your mother."

The tea cup that he had planned on handing her suddenly clinked as he looked at her in surprise. "I don't get it."

"You don't?" The woman frowned at him. She then blinked a couple of times. "Say, are you actually planning on nursing me back to health?"

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"Yes, I actually do thank you very much."

"I'm sorry I'm not Ichimaru Gin."

"Who happens to be my type by the way."

"I... don't compare the two of us!"

"He's old enough to be your father." Rangiku spoke in a sing song voice.

"It isn't as if you ever had kids!"

"Hm... anyways. I don't want you nursing me. The reason..."

"I won't hear of it. You're always nursing me back to health."

"Taicho..."

"Go to sleep Matsumoto. I'm also sorry that idiot took off, otherwise he'd be here in my place."

"But..."

"Matsumoto! Lie down already!" The woman let out a sigh and complied, coughing as she did so. She heard him mutter under his breath as she began to doze off. "I handle this just as well as he could have. We don't need him."

**M**

When Rangiku woke next she found her small taicho pacing back and forth. When she sat up, she noticed him turn to her while biting his lip. A bowl of water was on the bowl. "If I recollect, you normally when I'm sick..." There was a pause. "I called Ise to come and help."

"Ah... you're talking about helping me clean the sweat off my body aren't you?"

"Matsumoto!"

"Taicho... it isn't that big of a deal."

'What... because you're old enough to _be_ my mother? May I remind you that you're _not _my mother? I..."

"Gin did it all the time."

"Don't bring him into this."

"Well. I don't want you nursing me back to health anyways." The next words came out of her mouth without thinking. "I guess you can't handle this as well as he can."

"You over head _that_?" Toshiro's voice trembled. He glanced at the ground. "Maybe... no, I absolutely can not cross that line. Unlike him I know proper etiquette!"

"Oh, taicho..."

A knock came at the door and both turned to see that the fukutaicho of the eighth was standing there. The boy's mouth opened. "Matsumoto isn't feeling well."

"I can tell. What are you doing in her room?"

"Taicho's going to wash the sweat off my body." Rangiku watched as the boy's face turned red. "I mispoke. I meant he's trying to nurse me back to health."

"Where did the first comment come from?" Nanao glared at the boy. "You aren't thinking anything perverted.

"No! It's just... Matsumoto always does it for me when I'm ill. It is something you're supposed to do for someone when they're not well, right?" Toshiro paused. "And yet I'm a male... you're not, so it would be... um. It wouldn't be a breach of etiquette."

"I know. You can take care of me Nanao. As I said, I don't want taicho taking care of me."

"All I'm doing is returning the favor for once!" The boy turned around to face her, only to see that she was removing her top clothing. He spun around, his face red. "Matsumoto!"

"Rangiku... I don't have time to be taking care of you. What about the paper work as well Hitsugaya Taicho? You could have the forth division take care of this."

"I've _finished_ the paperwork. I'm also returning the favor for once. Please... can you stop by... and you know what?"

"All right. All right."

**M**

After a few times of waking up Rangiku woke to find she felt nice and cool. Something was to her side, causing her to sit up and see that her small taicho had fallen asleep by her side. A smile spread across her face as she watched him. "Maybe my worry is..." A soft coughing sound came from the boy. "My bad luck."

Carefully she nudged him awake. He looked up at her. "Matsumoto?"

"Taicho..." Another coughing fit came from the boy. "You have what I have." The boy stared at her blankly. "_And it seems you have it far worse._"

"Did I do something wrong?"

"I told you I didn't want you taking care of me."

"I just wanted to return the favor. Is there anything wrong with that?"

"When you manage to get sick taking care of me something's wrong. _That's_ why I didn't want you to take care of me, I knew you would get sick." A smile though spread across her face as he fell forward, his body tired from his own illness as well as having stayed up to take care of her. "_My turn._"


	6. 1:1:6 Saturday's Child

_This is Week 1: Challenge 1 ~ part 6. Use each trait from the poem Monday's Child to write a one-shot._

_**Summary: **__Toshiro's sister tries to get him to play with her, but his nose is stuck in paper work.  
__**Notes:**__This one-shot works with my theory that Bambietta is also the child of Rangiku and Gin and is Toshiro's twin. The good guys have won as well._

**Saturday's Child  
**_~Saturday's child works hard for a living~_

A ticking sound could be heard over the sound of a brush as the clock hands moved around the face indicating the seconds, minutes and hours as it passed. Two bright teal eyes were glued to the papers in front of him, his mouth twisted up into a deep frown as he continued working on getting the paperwork finished. The sooner he finished the paperwork, the sooner he could work on his training and the sooner he could take his nap so that he could _grow_ taller.

The small taicho of the tenth division was so into the task at hand that he didn't hear footsteps coming closer to his desk, though in part this was because the person in question was as light on their feet as he was. Two hands suddenly slammed onto the desk, the sound of hands hitting wood jarring him from what he was doing, causing him to knock over the bottle of ink onto the latest piece of paperwork he was concentrating on.

Toshiro's mouth opened with the corners of his mouth pinched while his eyes widened and went out of focus for a few seconds. With his mouth still open his eyes looked up at his twin, snapping shut upon realizing who it was. "Basterbine!"

"Basterbine, Basterbine. It's Bam...beit...ta." The girl's mouth was twisted up into a frown, her own bright teal eyes narrowed at him. She removed her hands from the edge of the desk front and folded her arms across her chest. "Why is it you choose to distance yourself from me like this. You are my twin you know."

"First off, I'm _busy_. I'm also on _duty_. This means I don't _have_ time for pleasantries with you, not to mention the fact I need to be acting in a formal manner towards everyone right now." The child taicho narrowed his eyes. "_Plus_... you're insisting that I act in a familiar manner with you _despite _the fact you are still a complete stranger to me. Of course I'm going to be informal around you and calling you by your last name. _And..._"

The female's mouth twisted up in anger before storming around the other side of the desk. Before he could say something about how ruining his paper work made him upset she reached out and grabbed him by the front of his uniform, yanking him up onto his feet. "You _don't_ get it do you?"

"What do you mean I _don't_ get it. You and I may be twins but we're complete strangers to each other." The corners of Bambietta's mouth twitched and she let go of the front of his uniform. The next thing Toshiro knew her hand was coming across his face, leaving a stinging feeling. He turned to her, his eyes wide as well as watering slightly in the corners. "What was _that_ for?"

"You don't get it do you?" The female glowered at him, causing him to look away. "Why are you not wanting to look me in the face?"

"You're taller then me. That makes me uncomfortable." This statement caused his other cheek to suddenly sting. "What is wrong with you?"

"No, what is wrong with you? You've told me that I'm a stranger despite being your twin. You can't look me in your face."

"I explained to you that I can't act in a familiar manner with you because we don't know each other."

"How can we get to know each other when you've cooped yourself up in the office? You don't spend any time with me and won't even look at me." Bambietta shoved her face in front of his, causing him to flinch as well as pull away.

"It's not as if... it isn't as if..." Toshiro's hand touched the ink covered desk. "I need to get this cleaned up."

"Stop avoiding me!" The boy paused again, the corners of his mouth deepening. He glanced away again. "Do you hate me or something?"

"No. I just..." There came silence as she waited for his answer. "I'm just not sociable like you. Even if I want..." The rest came under his breath. "...to get to know you I don't know how."

"That's it?" The girl placed her hands on her hips. "That's stupid you know."

"What?" The child taicho looked up, his teal eye's widening from surprise. "You..."

"Take a break from work. Come play with me."

"I don't have time. I have to finish the paperwork, then it's training and then..." Toshiro flinched. "_I shouldn't tell her that I still take naps._"

"And then what?"

Letting out a deep sigh he spoke carefully, having the feeling that it would backfire of him. "I need to take a nap so I can catch up to you height wise."

"You're stupid." Bambietta's words indicated that she was frustrated with him.

"Look... it's not. I've..."

"You're fine the way you are. I just want to be able to spend time with you because you're my twin."

Toshiro paused. "I _still_ need to finish my work. You came in here and made more work for me."

"Nii-sama..."

"Look, at least let me get this cleaned up. If I don't it will stain the desk."

"Get one of your subordinates to do it."

"What? That would be irresponsible."

"What are subordinates for?"

"I don't want to hear a lecture about subordinates when I know for a fact you have cut your own in half killing them."

"You know for a fact?" Bambietta narrowed her eyes at him.

"Yes... I overheard others of the Vandenreich."

"You heard, but you haven't confirmed. You haven't bothered to socialize with the rest of the family."

Toshiro glanced away. "It's been confirmed because I've heard more then one speak of it."

"Yeah... there is such a thing as a rumor. I can tell you that nothing of the sort occurred."

"I also know you're lying to me." The boy glanced at the desk. "We may be strangers, but I am able to read you far better then you're able to read me. Maybe you can read me as well as we're being twins, but you aren't making any effort to try and know who I am and instead are trying to force me to become someone I'm not."

"This is coming from someone who doesn't know who he is." The girl let out a deep sigh. "Fine. I'll leave you to your stupid work. That doesn't mean though that I am going to give up."


	7. 1:1:7 Sunday's Child

_This is Week 1: Challenge 1 ~ part 7. Use each trait from the poem Monday's Child to write a one-shot._

_**Summary: **__Kaien and Miyako can't have children of their own, but one child makes up for it in his own way without realizing it.  
__**Notes:**__This is based off something my brother and I have been discussing of late._

**Sunday's Child  
**_~But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day  
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay~_

Kaien's mood was dark and seeing Miyako honestly wasn't making said mood go away. Seeing her actually made the feelings worse and he found himself wishing constantly that there was something he could do about the situation. The fact she was in one of those moods where she suggested he cheat on her just to get an heir wasn't helping matters either when he knew he only had eyes for her and cheating on her even though she gave permission just so they could have a little one made him feel dishonorable by thinking about it.

This time though she had been overheard by his older twin brother who had been speaking to their Uncle Kyoraku about the future of the clan. Thus Kyoraku found out the pitiful plight Kaien and his wife were in where they could not have children of their own. The man had tried soft footing the whole issue and trying to cheer the two up, but nothing made him feel better. Despite the fact he and Miyako knew the problem lay with her, he still felt guilty for not giving her something he knew she wanted very much... to be a mother.

He found himself wandering through the Rukongai, when an odd spiritual presence caught his attention. Caught off guard he decided to follow the feeling and came to a small, shallow pond where a white haired child was carefully dipping his feet into the pool. Kaien pulled behind a tree as his own rieatsu caught attention of the small child, but looked back to see that the child's attention didn't last long. The man then carefully felt around, finding that the boy had an overly high level of reiatsu for someone so small.

The sound of other children caused the boy to look up suddenly in fright and look towards the sound. Four children appeared, the leader narrowing his eyes at the child. "What are _you_ doing here?"

The small child stumbled backwards into the water, his clothing becoming soaked while the others laughed. One of the children picked up a pebble and flung it at the child, causing the child to raise his arms up to block the pebbles that were flying at him. It was then that Kaien stepped out. "_What_ do you think you're doing?"

The four children startled and ran off, one of them... he wasn't sure which... yelling, "It's one of the Shiba clan members."

He then stepped over to the boy who was still sitting rather dejectedly in the pond. He reached out his hand to help the child up, only to have the boy look at him with what he had to describe as a beautiful eye color. Said eyes though were filled with fright and the child instead got up on his own and darted off, causing Kaien to frown, his problems momentarily forgotten.

**M**

Said problems weren't forgotten for long as Miyako's mood fluctuated monthly due to the fact she knew any attempt they made would be unsuccessful. By the next month he had gathered some information about the boy and even found where he lived. His interest had perked to the point he would watch the boy as the child watched various things, like a bird feeding its young. The boy would also collect small things and show his grandmother and foster sister, only to have his foster sister screw up her nose with frustration.

One thing was known to him though, the child needed help as his reiatsu was abnormal. Thus an idea had formed in his mind by the time the next month had rolled around. Question was could he possibly go about this the right way. Miyako was off moping at the Shiba clan's home when he approached her. She glanced up at him with a sad look on her face. "If this is about trying again..."

Kaien shook his head. "I'm actually wondering if you would be willing to adopt?"

The woman paused, before looking away. "I told you that I was willing to let you take a mistress."

"I don't want my child to be from anyone but you."

"But you're willing to adopt."

"I found a child out in the Rukongai."

"The Shiba clan is always finding children and helping them out. How is this different then the other times."

"This child is different." The man took her hand. "Can I show him to you?"

Letting out a deep sigh she followed him without complaint. The look on her face told him that she wasn't too thrilled with this plan. He stopped near the house and climbed up where he could position her near him so the boy wouldn't see them. He wasn't worried about the foster sister as she didn't seem to be acutely aware of things despite having a very minute spiritual pressure, while the grandmother would simply smile and wave upon seeing him.

Soon the boy came out of the house, tripping on the step into the ground hard. Miyako of course couldn't help but gasp and would have gone to help the small thing up if it weren't for the fact Kaien held her back. "Don't. He's a tough little one. Plus, can you feel that reiatsu?"

This caused his wife to feel out and another gasp came. "He's as high as you and Isshin were, but at a younger age."

"You actually remember us being at this level?"

"I've known you since childhood Kaien." The woman frowned. "His hair color though is odd."

"Does that bother you? Apparently the village he lives in thinks of him as an oni."

"That child? But he is so..." Miyako went back to watching for a few minutes. "He seems like such a normal child."

"You just said his hair color is odd." The man let out a laugh.

"It's no different then taicho's." The woman frowned. "There are a lot of children like this though. What sets him apart."

"The high reiatsu, the beautiful white hair, the fact he's being raised by a little old lady that we honestly don't know how long she'll be around... what else do you need for me to sell you on this idea."

"Kaien... it's crazy."

"His eyes. His eyes made me think that if he was your child you would be happy even if he wasn't our blood child. He's... I don't know how to put it, special."

The woman bit her lip before jumping down, Kaien's hand reaching out to stop her. She approached the boy, causing the boy to look her straight in the eye. The reaction was as he expected. The child took off with a great amount of fright upon seeing someone try and be nice to him. She came back to him, still biting her lip. "He's a rather special case isn't he."

"You don't think we can do it?"

"I don't care if we can or can't do it. I want to break down that icy wall that child has up protecting him. You felt it as well. He needs us just as much as we need him."

**M**

Approaching said child was honestly a painful task as he became more aware of the rieatsu around him and thus more aware of them trying to approach him. The two took the time to speak with the grandmother while the boy was out and found that the child had only really ever opened up to her and his foster sister as everyone else shunned him and he honestly believed others would as well. This had caused the two to look at each other in worry.

"You two are planning on taking him in as your own, aren't you?"

Kaien stared at the woman in surprise while Miyako spoke to the woman. "I hope you aren't offended by the fact we wish to do so. How did you know?"

"The Shiba clan has always been known for adopting outsiders into their clan when they think they're special. I should forewarn you though that the boy's father may have something to say about the issue."

"I've never seen him around." The man frowned.

"His father has reason for..." The old woman frowned herself then. "The situation is complicated really. The man isn't in a situation where he can come near the boy. I don't know the reason, but I believe it has something to do with protecting the child."

"And the mother?"

"The mother is out of the picture due to complicated reasons and is also unable to care for the child. I get a monthly stipend from him though and it's used to care for both children." The woman frowned. "I think, maybe the man would relent if it meant that child could have a mother and father in his life, but he also may be possessive enough to not allow it. The other issue is getting close to the child so that he can get to know and accept you two."

"I would be more then willing."

"Because the two of you can't have children of your own?"

Miyako pulled back then, guilt on her face. "If you feel it is a selfish reason..."

"Is it really selfish for a person to want a little one to love? That child needs all the love he can get." The woman paused then. "I'll speak with the father. Speaking with that man is no easy task."

**M**

Things still weren't easy as the child would take off quickly. Then came the big concern, the fact Miyako and Kaien could feel the child's reiatsu reaching a dangerous point. So, after years of approaching the two found themselves approaching the child while they waited for the other answer from the old woman. Kaien then found himself approaching Isshin for help, much to his reluctance. "Nii-sama?"

Isshin looked up from the place he was napping. "Ah! Do you want to switch places for a couple of days?"

The younger twin let out a sigh of frustration. "Nii-sama. I came to you because I need your help. Be serious for once."

Isshin frowned. "What is it?"

"You know how Miyako and I can't have children?"

"No. Absolutely not. You of all people know my perverted attitude is just an act. And isn't that like her asking you to cheat on her? I bet you haven't _asked_ her yet. Plus, she _knows_ which one of us is _which_. She would kill both up us and our honor would be ruined in more ways then one as she'll take a knife and make sure neither one of us can have kids. So the answer is..."

Kaien let out a sigh and went into a proper seated position next to his brother, taking his hand and hitting the older twin hard on the top of his head with the side of his hand. "That's not what I'm asking for. No, seriously. Miyako and I are thinking about adopting."

The man paused. "There are a ton of children out in the Rukongai who could use a good home. Just go out and pick one."

"We already had... years ago to be exact."

Isshin sat up, a frown plastered on his face. "What is holding you back?"

"This child is only approachable by the old woman who takes care of him as well as his foster sister. Miyako and I have tried approaching him many times, but he runs every single time."

"Hold it..."

"Let me finish. There is also the problem with the fact he _does_ have a father and mother who are out of the picture, so adoption may be a problem. There is a more serious issue here that is far more important then us adopting this child."

The older twin scratched his head. "In order for you to have found and taken an interest in this child his must be abnormal. He's approaching the point of becoming an undesirable and ending up in the maggots nest or worse off dead."

"Yes." Kaien bowed then to his brother.

"I wondered why that particular situation wasn't bothering the two of you anymore. I'll see what I can do about it."

**M**

Isshin tried himself approaching the child. He choose to be stealthy as if he were playing a game, much like he would do with Ganju. "Hello little friend."

The boy looked up at the man, taking in the smirk. The child looked horribly rough around the edges and at that point he couldn't see the charm in the boy. "I'm not your friend."

"Excuse me?"

"You and the other two Shiba's. It's the job of your clan to take care of those in your area. Thus the only reason you three keep approaching me is because of your job, not because you want to be my friend." The child then took off.

The next thing Kaien and Miyako knew Isshin was ranting at them. "That child is an absolute brat. I can't imagine why either one of you would _want_ to adopt him."

"We've been trying to approach him for what now? Ten, twenty years?" Miyako glanced back at Kaien.

"If not more."

"I'll consent to a full proof plan to getting him into the academy, but I _won't_ consent to you two adopting him."

The next thing Isshin knew something hard and heavy hit him in the face. "I will _not_ have you telling us whether or not to adopt this child! I've had my hopes on this little one for some time and I am _not_ giving up! Not to mention the fact you are being a judgmental as his village, which is likely why he's become the way he has! On top of this, what do you _mean_ you have a full proof plan. Whenever you two have fool proof plans it almost always means some kind of trouble for me to clean up!"

"Now, now Miyako. I was just thinking of having Rangiku approach him. I won't tell her about why, but she _should_ be able to sense the child needs to get into the academy as soon as possible. Knowing my fukutaicho, she'll not accept no for an answer on this one."

"Maybe you should marry her." The woman crossed her arms as she sulked.

"Is it that time of month?" Another heavy thing hit him in the head.

"You should know better then to say stupid things like that."

"Well, she's telling me to marry someone I _think_ of as a little sister. Of _course_ I'm going to say something like that Kaien!"

**M**

Kaien waited with Isshin in the room for Rangiku to get back. The plan was for her to head out on rounds right when they knew the boy would be going to get some more amanatto for him and his grandmother. Asking around had revealed the information. Of course, the woman blew into the room. "Taicho! I need a favor!"

"What do you mean you need a favor!"

"There is this kid in the area I was patrolling. The shopkeeper wasn't very nice to him." The woman went then into how cruel the people in that area were as well as how crazy the child's reiatsu was. She went on about how something had to be done as soon as possible and she would throw a fit if they didn't get the boy into the academy as soon as possible.

Isshin simply held out a paper. "Here... have at it."

"What?" The woman looked down. "This kind of paperwork needs the signature of a captain and a fukutaicho. Who was the fukutaicho who..." There was a period of silence as she took in Kaien's signature. "You both _knew_ about this child?"

Kaien spoke up. "Seems like you've had better luck approaching him then we did. _Don't_ though tell him that you're associated with the Shiba clan. Use something else."

"I could have signed this though!" Rangiku hit the paper.

"With a child as young as this Ran-chan, the signatures of two members of one of the top noble clans holds a lot more sway with the school board about the urgency of getting this child in. Otherwise they'll wait until next year to let him in."

The woman glanced away. "Still... I felt really drawn to this child and I felt like I just had to protect him."

"That brat?" Isshin snorted air out of his nose.

"Excuse me?'

"I talked to him. He's an absolute brat. Which is why..."

"You moron! He's absolutely adorable. Rough around the edges, yes... but adorable none the less. That roughness is just his way of protecting himself from all the abuse." Rangiku glared at him. "Why do males have to be such idiots."

Kaien raised his eyebrows. "Does this include me right now? I actually think the boy's adorable. I think he should also be placed on accelerated plan."

"Are you _crazy_?" Isshin's voice strained.

"We'd be crazy not to. You know as well as I that he isn't a normal child. He's getting into the academy at a much younger age then anyone else has been allowed in. He's going to stand out, not to mention he's intelligent for his age which is going to make him stand out even more. By getting him in and out as soon as possible we can safely place him in your squad where you can keep an eye on him."

"You found him Kaien."

"You also know full well that he's at captain level. You know Bankai, I do not."

"Crap."

**M**

Isshin though found himself warming up to the child as he found that the others had been right about the fact Toshiro was an intelligent child as well as a child who fought to protect himself. He and Kaien came up with the curiculum with the help of another former child genius. Why Gin came and helped neither one knew. It was possibly because Rangiku had also taken an interest in a child. Thus the boy ended up graduating in one tenth of the time it normally took someone to get through the academy.

The boy remained distant. When he found out that Isshin was his taicho, the words out of his mouth were, "I should have known. This is just another one of the Shiba clans projects to help the needy."

He then refused to speak to them for some time. Miyako though broke the silence the first time by instantly hugging the child, catching him off guard. She then proceeded to fawn over him and mother him. They invited the boy over to their place in the center part of Soul Society and he slowly began to open up to them. While around others he remained cold and distant, but at other times he could be the warmest child ever.

One night Kaien stepped out of the room while Miyako tucked the boy into bed as it was to late to send him to the division. When he came back from his rounds he found the captain of the third division sitting at the edge of the bed with his wife. Kaien sat down. "What are you doing here Gin? Your behavior seems a bit odd."

"Is it really true what Ukitake tells me, that you're planning on adopting the kid?"

The two Shiba's glanced at each other and then Kaien spoke up. "We've gotten over the most important hurtle. At least the one that is most important to us. Getting him to warm up to us isn't the same as passing the paper work through the noble clans. We also have to get the child's father to consent."

"I thought Shiro-chan died on a plain of ice?"

The older man frowned. "Well... that's honestly from what Toshiro's told us what he believes. The old lady who raised him, his granny... she told us that his father is still alive."

"What if there was a way to get the paperwork done fast?" Gin turned back to looking at the boy. "That would mean that he would have a father and mother in his life, right?"

"Where is this coming from?"

"Nothing..."

**M**

Ukitake found himself going through Kaien and Miyako's things looking for a specific piece of paper. Isshin was gone, the other two were gone. That paper had been signed by Isshin and Kaien before they had _died_. Died was the figurative word as Ukitake knew the older twin was out there somewhere. Also signing the paper before something happened to Kaien and Miyako were himself and Byakuya's grandfather. Gin had signed as well, thus binding the legal contract.

Kaien had upon seeing Gin's signature mentioned the fact he had suspected something of the sorts, while Miyako upon realization asked about Rangiku's side. To which Ukitake had replied that Rangiku was not in the position to be a mother from what he had learned from Gin as she had lost her memories and that was all he could say about the problem as the situation was _complicated._ Thus Hitsugaya Toshiro was legally Shiba Toshiro, but only a few people knew this. Not even the boy was made to know.

Except Kaien and Miyako had been killed the day after. Kaien had said something about suspecting something. Ukitake hadn't thought much of it and wouldn't think much of it for many, many years. The Shiba clan was in an uproar and he had to approach them. Sitting down in front of them a few hours latter they spoke about having Ganju of all people take the place as head as neither of the two older brothers had produced an heir.

"Actually... the younger of the two twins has an heir." Kyoraku glanced over at Ukitake. "Ukitake taicho is here because he helped with the paperwork. As Kaien and Miyako couldn't have children, they made the decision to adopt a child."

"You must be kidding me." Complaints went around the room. Ganju wasn't in the room and some said it wasn't fair as he had to representation for himself.

Kukaku spoke up then. "This wouldn't be little Toshiro-kun would it?"

"Yes. He doesn't know about the adoption as of yet."

"I'll take over as head until he comes of age. We can tell him of the adoption then. Not when he's still upset about losing Isshin, and now Kaien and Miyako. All that work they put into getting him to open, I've heard it's backfired."

"Come on. Who is this strange child."

"A much better candidate for the head position then my youngest brother. Or do you wish to place him in as head because you know you can easily control him, but this child you know you can not? Isshin and Kaien weren't stupid. They made plans in case something happened to them. Of course, in the long run they hadn't wanted anything to happen to them."

"This also isn't any normal child either that they picked." Kyoraku tilted his head down. "Youngest to ever graduate the academy, youngest to ever achieve Bankai. In a few more days he'll be the youngest to ever reach the rank of captain. In another decade or two he'll be at Isshin and Kaien's level. Ganju won't ever be that high. On top of this..."

There was a pause then before he continued. "This child has an unbiased outlook in life and is full of honor. He's a good child, a caring child who has a noble heart. He's the kind of heir any clan would want but so few manage to get. Consider yourselves lucky the twins were able to find him and bless the clan with this child's presence as well as add him to the family. There is word among some of the other clans since he graduated the academy about adopting him, but they haven't been able to approach him like the Shiba clan.

"_That_ is how special this child is."


	8. 2:1:1 Ten Character Haiku

_This is Week 2: Challenge 1 ~ Write ten character haiku._

_**Summary: **__Toshiro, Bambietta, Kyoraku, Ukitake, Isshin, Momo, Gin, Aizen, Tosen, Ichigo  
__**Notes:**__Finally... I'm able to get to the second challenge! Coming up with __one__was easy, but ten is not._

**Ten Character Haiku**

Child of ice and snow  
Eyes that reflect painful tears  
What is your past like?

Psychopath girl child  
Please get away from me right now  
You scare me greatly

Byronic hero  
A romanticist for sure  
Love for all women

Next to the koi pond  
He sits drinking his sweat tea  
And giving candy

I am a doctor  
Once was a shinigami  
Three children have I

Sweet angel she be  
Until you make her angry  
Cruel devil she be

Silver is his head  
Silver is his tongue too  
What lie the snake tell

Love of thy neighbor  
But keep the enemy close  
And know hidden truths

Dark is white they say  
Opposites attract as well  
There goes my whitey

I am the hero  
But I just want my friends  
To be safe for good


	9. 3:1:1 Christmas in July

_This is Week 3: Challenge 1 ~ The theme is "Christmas in July"._

_**Summary: **_Bambietta gets it through her head that they need to make up for lost time. It's not just Christmas she wants to celebrate either._  
__**Notes:**_Another story where Bambietta and Toshiro are twins. I just so happen to like her picking on him. Lilotto is his cousin.

**Christmas in July**

The small taicho sat at his desk working on his paperwork, not noticing someone sneak into the room to position themselves at the back side of the desk. Slowly they rose up so their face came over the edge of the desk, watching him carefully. Toshiro kept working away at his paperwork, oblivious to the fact someone was watching him. The figure finally crossed their arms across the top of the desk and leaned in. "How many Christmas' have we missed?"

Toshiro looked up. "I don't celebrate Christmas. It's also the summer, so why are you even bringing this up?"

"Well... I was thinking something along the lines of how we've never really gotten to do anything major with each other and there is no major holidays until Christmas. There is our birthday..."

"I don't even celebrate that."

"Why not?"

The small taicho paused, thinking about how he should word that one. "How would you feel if you didn't know if your birthday was your real birthday."

"Is that why you don't celebrate Christmas."

"Yes. Well, kind of. Why celebrate something that is supposed to be about family when you don't know who you're family is."

"I guess this year you don't have an excuse to celebrate as you know it is your real birthday and you know who your real family is." The girl continued to lean on the edge of the desk.

"Yes... but why should I be thinking about this all the way in summer?"

"Would it be possible for you to make it snow for _one_ day?"

Toshiro looked up at his twin. "What ever for?"

"I would like to celebrate our birthday and Christmas now to make up for all of the time we missed together."

The boy looked up at the girl, watching as she stood up and held her hands behind her back. The look on her face said she really wanted to do this. He stood up, his face dropping to the table. "I need to go do something."

"What about making it snow?"

"I'm not going to inconvenience people simply because you want to play in the snow. That's not fair to them. Also, don't follow me."

Bambietta's eye's narrowed at him. "Telling me that makes me want to follow you, you know."

"Not if I tell you I'll explain to you what I'm doing later, but that I can't take the time to do so now. It's important that I explain it later." He slipped out of the door without saying another word.

The female let out a deep sigh of frustration. "Come on. I know our family is messed up, but that doesn't mean you need to reject us like this. Particularly me."

**M**

Toshiro moved about without anyone noticing him. He slipped into a toy store and began to look around. Nothing though seemed right to him. A young voice spoke behind him. "Nii-sama?"

The young taicho turned to look over his shoulder, his eye's wide as he continued to frown. "Lamperd."

"You can call me Lilly-chan. What are you doing in a toy shop?"

"Basterbine said she wanted to celebrate Christmas now to make up for all the Christmases and birthdays the two of us missed." Toshiro went back to looking around the shop, frowning as he did so.

"I don't get it."

"What do you mean?"

"I thought you didn't like us."

Toshiro's eye's widened and he turned around. "Where did you get that idea from?"

"You ignore us and avoid us. You don't bother to socialize with us. Candy and the others think the same, but Bambietta doesn't want to give up on you."

A frown spread across his face as his bright teal eyes narrowed. "First off, I've never exactly gotten the idea that I'm welcome by any of you and the fact you say you've given up doesn't help that feeling. Second, you say I don't bother to socialize with you guys. Thing is, I don't socialize with people."

"Why not?"

"Because I can't."

"You mean because of all that stuffy paperwork Bambietta complains about?"

"No... not because of work. I just can't socialize with people." Toshiro watched the small female glared at him, causing him to look away. "I just don't know how to interact with people, so I avoid social contact all together. So please... don't push the subject."

"So you mean we just had to force you to join in?"

"That's not what I said!" The boy frowned at her. "Plus, right now I am busy."

He turned back to look at the items. "I could help you know."

Toshiro blinked a couple of times. He quickly stood up then bowed all the way to the waist. "Please. I don't know what to get her."

**M**

Bambietta had given up on the idea. The cookies she had made, or had attempted to make sat on the tenth division kitchen counter. A knock came on the door frame. "My subordinates said I could find you here Basterbine."

The girl spun around, glaring at him. "Seriously! We're twins! You _don't _have to call me by my last name."

Toshiro glanced away, pulling the wrapped package closer to his chest. Lilly slipped into the room, pausing at the mess. "I told you not to make sweets without me. You're just not any good."

"_You_ were with him?" Bambietta's tone tightened. "Why are you hanging out with her instead of me? What have I done to make you hate me so much?"

The boy glanced at the ground, his voice almost inaudible to her. "We just ran into each other and she helped me with something important."

The girl turned and looked at the wall, her face going to rest in her hands as she leaned on her counter. "Yeah, well... what ever. My idea was a disaster anyways. I couldn't make cookies and you're obviously _not _into the idea."

A package was suddenly set to the side in a section that wasn't messed up. "Just clean up the mess you made and open that when you're done. But not before. I don't want to have to clean it up myself. Bambietta found herself looking at the package for a few minutes, only to be interrupted from her train of thought by her twin. "Please... if you want to do something for me, don't make me have to clean up this mess you made."

The girl frowned before going about cleaning up the mess. She almost knocked the package over, her ability to clean being almost non-existent. Toshiro though grabbed the package in a defensive manner as if he didn't want it to break. When she finished she held out her hands for the package. She took it, taking in the fact the present was carefully wrapped in Christmas paper.

Upon unwrapping it, she saw a beautiful china doll in a beautiful dress along with beautiful hair. She cradled the doll in her arms. "By having _her_ help you out, you mean having her help you pick out something for me?"

Toshiro simply glanced away, his cheeks flushing up. Lilly though beamed at her cousin. "If you don't like it, I'll take it."

"So you decided to pick out something _you_ liked." Bambietta pulled the doll closer. "It's the thought that counts."

"So in other words you don't like it, but at least like the fact I did something." The female looked up to see him looking at her, a rather desperate look on his face.

She felt her throat swallow before glancing at the ground. "No... I like it. The doll's not really for playing with anyways, so I can put it on my book shelf."

"What kind..." Toshiro's words stopped short upon realizing he was speaking to her. He turned then and headed towards the door. "I have to go."

Bambietta took a deep breath. "At least I know he doesn't hate me."


	10. 4:1:1 Could Say It

_This is Week 4: Challege 1 ~ I needed to push the random button on TV Tropes. Since the first trope I came up with was "Side Story Bonus Art" which isn't something I can use for writing. So the second time I pushed the button I got "Could Say It But"_

_**Summary: **__Gin wants to tell Rangiku and Toshiro the truth.  
__**Notes:**__Figuring out what to do for this one wasn't easy._

**Could Say It**

The idea of pretending to be drunk crossed his mind, but in truth if there was one mask he didn't know how to play well it was the mask of the drunk. Gin had avoided contact with certain people after the Winter War making them think he was dead and he avoided contact with them after the war with the Quincy. Of course this in itself was harder to do simply because he found himself running across them as they were now all in the same general area and there was also more people who actually knew him who could point them in the right direction.

Thankfully the majority of people hadn't figured out his connection with the Vandenreich and many of that group choose to avoid him because they simply didn't know who they were or they found themselves mad at him. Kyoraku and Ukitake had of course figured out the connection. Chances were Yamamotto and his fukutaicho had known all along as well. They kept quite and watched from the distance, Gin's dance around telling certain people certain things amusing them. It wasn't the kind of amusement where one was ridiculing one mind you, just the type where one is amused to watch the children at 'play'.

The only two people who didn't out right avoid him other then the two taicho were Cang and Jugram. The second of these two had a habit of latching onto him much to the dislike of Bambietta. The girl kept telling her uncle off, though Gin couldn't really blame her for disliking him so much. He didn't know whether it was because she knew the truth of saw him as another annoying Shinigami. Both were logical reasons to have the kind of distaste that she did. On top of this Cang's quirk of following him about was honestly abnormal.

It was also noticeable. The other day he overheard his former fukutaicho speaking with his new taicho. "There must be something wrong with that member of the Vandenreich. Nobody wants anything to do with Ichimaru, yet that man seems fascinated by his mere existence."

"Neither one are really the talking type."

Of course, Gin wondered if the two even knew he and Cang were listening at the time. Jugram though was another matter entirely. The interactions with the man weren't of the sociable kind. In fact, his twin brother was as anti-social as Byakuya. Perhaps that was why Gin had always tried to strike up conversations with the man, he had honestly missed his brother without realizing it. He wasn't missing the man though now. Sitting with him drinking tea in silence wasn't his idea of a nice pass time. He had to be doing something with his hands.

Like sewing or embroidering, something that cause Jugram to look at him in disgust as it was a woman's job. "Why? Why do you take on such mundane tasks?'

Gin frowned at the man. "You know... mother's the one who taught me."

"What of it?"

"What of it? It's something I have left of her. It also keeps my hands busy and means I'm not doing other things."

"What do you mean by other things?"

Jugram of course should have known what Gin was talking about, but he was quite sure that the man was avoiding the subject simply because he didn't want to admit his twin could be at times a complete psychopath. Of course, Gin had specifically meant simply mischief like when he was younger that always managed to drive his younger twin to a boiling rage. Now it didn't seem to phase him at all. Family was complicated like that.

Which was what was leading him into this particular predicament. It was honestly time to explain things to two people he had been keeping secrets from for a very long time. Letting out a deep sigh he headed towards an establishment and began to drink, only to find himself joined by Cang. Setting down his cup, he looked at his youngest brother with a stern glance. "Why do you follow me? One would think that you would have lost your hero worship complex after everything I've done to you and the rest of the family. Particularly since I gave you that scar."

Cang of course remained silent and simply poured himself a drink. Gin frowned at the man before taking another sip. "Still not a talker I see. No, honestly Cang... I wouldn't blame you for hating me for all that I did."

"I don't hate nii-sama. Nii-sama did what he had to do."

"I don't like your blind hero worship Cang."

"Why not?"

"Why? Simple. I don't deserve it." Gin took another drink. "_Exactly how long does it take for me to get drunk? I mean... I've never really drunk much before so I can't outright remember._"

"Why is nii-sama out drinking?"

The silver haired man flinched at the question. Letting out a sigh he explained his plan. "I haven't told Ran-chan or Shiro-chan the truth yet. If their tempers get flared up I won't be able to tell them everything I need to tell them. So, I figure I would pretend to be drunk so that they think I'm spouting off nonsense at first. Except I don't know how to pretend. So, I figure I get drunk for real." Silence was what he got. "I guess my logic makes no sense at all."

"Nii-sama's logic makes a lot of sense."

Gin felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "_Does it actually make sense to him?_"

After a couple hours of drinking he headed to the tenth division, Cang following close behind him. The man kept to the shadows but Gin knew he was there. Cang had this need to not leave his side. As Gin thought, Toshiro was busy with paperwork. Surprisingly Ran was also working and thus he knew he could get this over with. When he came into the room the woman looked up and glared at him, but he proceeded to go and sit on their couch. All he had to do now was wait for one of them to notice.

"What are you doing here?" Toshiro was the first to speak up.

"I'm following him."

Gin felt a hand cover his eye's upon hearing Cang speak. "_He's got to be smarter then this._"

Small footsteps came over to the couch. "So what are you doing here Gin?" The man was going to answer, only for the boy's voice to sharpen with a bit of frustration. "Don't tell me you've been out drinking."

"So what if I have?"

"Of all the..." Toshiro's steps could be heard turning away, only for the boy to stop short. Ran seemed to be ignoring the situation despite the fact Gin knew she knew he was there. The child then came back. "Obviously you're here to talk. So, talk."

"I can talk, but I can't because you're not going to like it.'

"I figured that out a long time ago. Just talk."

"Hypothetically speaking here..." Gin just let the words tumble out of his mouth, letting the liquor loosen up his tongue. "... lets say you knew of a child who thought they died on a plain of ice but they also had an inner world that was a plain of ice?"

The sound of Toshiro taking a deep breath. The boy then spoke, his voice quaking. "Hypothetically speaking here the boy could have actually been born in Soul Society."

Gin could feel then a sudden change in Rangiku's reiatsu that indicated she was even more upset with him. "Hypothetically speaking, lets say the child happened to be a child genius with a very particular physical coloring, who would the child's parents hypothetically be?"

"Hypothetically the child's father would be a moronic former child genius psychopath with similar physical coloring and the child's mother would be a flaky amnesiac. Well, hypothetically the mother is an amnesiac as she is of the personality that she wouldn't abandon her child unless something like that happened."

"Gin..." Rangiku's voice could be heard tightening and the woman stood up from the desk. "Are you finished? If so, leave."

"Not finished. More hypothesis here. Let's say hypothetically the boy wasn't the only child between these two."

"Say what?"

"Gin..." The woman's voice tightened even more.

"Let's say hypothetically the moronic former child genius psychopath with similar physical coloring had a brother who took the second child away and hypothetically speaking this other child was a girl." Silence came then. "And hypothetically speaking the moronic former child genius psychopath with similar physical coloring had a father who was hypothetically even more of a sociopath then him."

"That's not hypothetical. Father was a horrible sociopath."

Gin uncovered his eyes at this point and looked up and Cang, frowning as he did. "Cang... you _really_ aren't helping here."

"I knew this wasn't hypothetical the moment you started Ichimaru." There was a sudden pause from the boy that was staring at him from the position where he was leaning on the couch. "Hypothetically speaking here... you're real name actually isn't Ichimaru Gin, so calling you Ichimaru isn't appropriate."

The man's voice tightened. "Hypothetically speaking a certain child could just as well call a certain person their father or if they hypothetically are pissed off with said man call him the fucktard."

"Hypothetically said child doesn't want his mouth washed out with soup and hypothetically speaking I think a certain fukutaicho wanted to wash a certain former taicho's mouth out even before he said a certain word."

"You find this amusing, don't you Shiro-chan."

"Hypothetically you're the one who thought he could pretend to be drunk."

"Taicho... Gin's really drunk."

"Really? He seems quite lucid to me. He's not acting like you at all when you get drunk."

"I am not going to explain that one to you." Rangiku came over and purposefully sat on Gin's stomach, causing him to let out a groan. "As for you? What was the big idea here? Did you think you would have more confidence if you were drunk?"

"Actually... the original idea was to pretend I was drunk so the two of you would brush off my words as inane babble, but then I realized I didn't know how to pretend to be drunk so I decided to purposefully get drunk instead to pull off the plan."

"That makes no sense."

"Yes it does," Cang and Tosiro said in an off key manner from each other.

Gin frowned. "I realized why now I knew it was a dumb idea as soon as Cang agreed with me. It's not that he's stupid, it's that he has a child like mentality so something like this would seem quite logical."

"Hypothetically speaking here still, we haven't told your daughter yet."

Toshiro flinched. "Hypothetically speaking, who is my sister?"

Gin let out a groan then as Rangiku pressed down on his stomach. "I'm not going to speak hypothetically here. Do something to correct the situation."


	11. 5:1:1 Chrysanthemum

_This is Week 5: Challege 1 ~ part 1: I'm working with each flower for each Gotei Thirteen division as well as the meaning._

_**Summary: **__The truth caused him to run.  
__**Notes:**__I'm finally on the latest challenge, but I'm probably going to have to catch up again as this weeks challenge consists of thirteen parts._

**Chrysanthemum  
**_~Truth and Innocence~_

Toshiro listened as the water dripped down the cave wall into the pools he couldn't see. The child taicho huddled off to the side, his zampaktuo folded across his arms. The boy was a nervous wreck, having run for two days straight from the Gotei Thirteen. He didn't want to think about the fact he once considered himself one of them and now he found himself trying to get away from his companions. Fear caused his body to shake and his mind to go numb, not to mention lack of sleep did not help.

The child buried his face into his arms, his forehead resting against his hilt. Rangiku was probably worried sick and the division was likely locked up again under threat that they would be disbanded. It wasn't as if his division cared though about him as they had always seen in his opinion a usurper to what had always been under the Shiba clan's control. All he had wanted to do was keep something precious to Isshin and Kaien going and now that would be gone.

He should have just let someone else take the captain's position. Instead he had been stubborn about change and was going to cause a drastic change for said division. His head nodded off and he found himself drifting off to sleep despite the pain he felt racking his entire body due to running two days straight, as well as the various injuries he had sustained.

_He found himself walking through the twelfth division, the memory that had caused him to run coming back fully. He couldn't wake up from the dream though and simply had to relive the painful memory. Of course, said memory only meant that Rangiku would be even more worried sick about him as she would have even more cause to worry. That in itself caused him to run perhaps._

_He was delivering something to the captain, only to find the man working away at one of his experiments. The boy peeked over out of curiosity at the computer, only to have Mayuri glare at him and suddenly reach out and yank out a hair, causing the boy to yelp. It was that nasty, horrible colored hair that caused him problems all his life that caused him problems yet again._

_The man plugged it into his device and spoke rather candidly as if he thought Toshiro would have any interest in his experiment. That, or the man simply wanted to brag. "The living world has something that compares DNA. I combines that technology with a technology that compares rieatsu, which should in turn make it easier to find matches. That's what occurred when I tried the Omaeda family out."_

"_So? Why should this concern me?"_

"_An orphan of the Rukongai who doesn't know who his parents are, but who happens to have curiously high reiatsu level isn't at all curious as to who his parents are?"_

"_Simple. I died and came to Soul Society. Why should I wonder who my parents are?"_

"_Well, I've got lots of samples that I required off the forth division."_

"_Unohana's not going to like that."_

"_I don't care what Unohana thinks about this!"_

"_You will once she finds out." Toshiro rolled his eyes into the back of his head._

"_Shut up." The man continued to click the computer keyboards. "This is the result for you."_

"_As if you could have come up with any results. I told you, I died and came to Soul Society."_

"_Not according to my computer you didn't." Toshiro flinched, his throat tightening. His eyes looked up at the screen to see pictures of both Ichimaru Gin and Matsumoto Rangiku."This result is rather interesting I must say. I wonder what forty-six will do if they find out you're the child of __that__ traitor. Actually, what will the other captain's do? Death I think._"

It was then that Toshiro decided to run and it was then that Toshiro woke up. A bright light caused him to stir from his sleep. His haze filled eyes caught on to the fact some sort of light was spreading across the place. He also heard the sound of flames instantaneously lighting. A sudden lurching fear came over him and he felt his body moving as Yamamotto of all people came into focus.

This ended badly, himself having forgotten that he had injured his foot. That was the reason he had retreated into the cave and had hidden himself her. He could feel the sobs trying to rack his body, but held them back. He couldn't hold back though the gut wrenching vomiting as his empty stomach decided to be unkind to him. The taste on his tongue then was vile.

Arms reached out from behind him to scoop close into a bosom larger then Rangiku's. Soft hands that were also calloused where a sword was held touched his cheeks. "The boy isn't doing well."

He could then hear Yamamotto let out a sigh. "Why did you run off like that?"

Toshiro could feel his body shake. Without realizing it he blurted out words without any form of control. "I don't want to die."

"Sweet heart, we aren't going to kill you. Is that what Kurotsuchi Taicho said to you that made you take off like you did? We won't hold that man's crimes against you. You're a child."

Sobs suddenly wracked Toshiro's body. "I don't want to be like him. I want her to remember me. I didn't _want_ to know."

He then found himself pulled close into Unohana's arms, the woman comforting him with her embrace as she did so. "We will have to have a major discussion with Mayuri when we get back about delving into private matters. Though I imagine that he'll say that its too late to undo what he did and that Hitsugaya Taicho would need to know eventually."

"As if that excuses his behavior." Yamamotto cursed before calling out to his fukutaicho. "Send word to everyone else that we've managed to find Hitsugaya Taicho safe and sound." The man paused. "How long do you think he'll need to rest up before he mentally recovers Unohana?"

"I don't know. It may take a very, very long time."

"As much time is needed." The boy then drifted off to sleep.

He awoke to see Ukitake and Kyoraku near him, Matsumoto asleep next to him. He looked at her, a frown crossing his face as his hand reached out to touch her hair. Ukitake was the one to speak then. "We have told her. The only ones we told when we found out were the head taicho and Unohana."

Toshiro's hand pulled back then, his face burying into the pillow. Kyoraku spoke then, coming over to rub the boy's shoulders. "It's not as if we don't plan on telling her. We wanted to know what you wanted to do though. If Mayuri had his way more then just those who know will know."

"Forty-six?"

"Apparently they've known all this time. So has Unohana and Yamamotto. They're not able to speak more on the matter, but we can honestly say that forty-six won't touch you. Apparently they're as furious as Mayuri about this situation." Ukitake placed a sack of candy next to the bed.

"That isn't like them."

"No." Kyoraku watched as Rangiku stirred. "Shall we tell her."

"Not yet. I..." Toshiro's mouth snapped shut as Rangiku looked up, before glomping him tightly.

"Don't ever do that to me again. Gin and taicho always ran off. It worries me so much."

Toshiro's arms wrapped around her small waist. "About Ichimaru?"

"What of it?"

"The two of you... you weren't just classmates, were you?"

"Taicho... Gin and I were never classmates. He graduated before I entered the acadamy."

"Did the two of you ever..."

A finger suddenly was placed on his mouth. Rangiku looked at him sternly. "Now see here. He and I doing it is not something you should be asking about at your age."

"No. I was going to ask if you know you had any kids with him?" Toshiro heard a chuckle come from the eighth division taicho. "What is so funny?"

"Shiro-chan... in order to have kids you _have_ to do it." The man watched as the boy's face suddenly turned red in the face.

Rangiku clapped a hand over her mouth. "Taicho... I'm sorry. I didn't realize you weren't referring to that. As for us having kids..."

There was a sudden sad look on her face. The boy tugged on her clothing. "Matsumoto, is something the matter?"

"I don't remember, but Unohana says I likely did have kids. A female's body when they have children shows signs. I didn't tell Gin though because the child may not have been his. Could have been... well, I likely don't remember my past for a good reason. Still. A child is a child."

Ukitake coughed then, causing Toshiro to look at him and then nod his head. "There is something we need to tell you Rangiku. About what Mayuri did to cause Hitsugaya Taicho to run off like he did."

The woman pulled the boy closer, listening to the two captain's speak to her. Toshiro snuggled closer, something that at first surprised her. However, the revelation quickly caused her to understand. "I don't know what punishment they're dealing out for him, I'm going to make sure his life is a living hell for the next few days, weeks, months. Until my ire dies out."


	12. 5:1:2 Pasque

_This is Week 5: Challege 1 ~ part 2: I'm working with each flower for each Gotei Thirteen division as well as the meaning._

_**Summary: **__Toshiro finds himself not seeking the truth to his past, but instead finds it hitting him full force and causing him to rethink some things.  
__**Notes:**__I need to catch up again. This one took a lot of pre-planning to write. Gin+Ran=Toshiro..._

**Pasque  
**_~Seek Nothing~_

Two small feet hit the soft ground of the dirt road outside of the buildings around the main area of Soul Society. Two bright teal eyes took in the fact people were preparing for the festival but in the long run ignored the fact that today was the day of the festival. The small taicho walked under a string of lanterns to head into his division area before heading then to the office. He sat down and worked on the paperwork without much thought.

A busty female came into the division unnoticed by him until she spoke up. "Taicho... are you going to the festival tonight?"

Toshiro paused, a frown spreading across his face. He looked up at her and stared. Finally the answer came out of his mouth. "No."

"But taicho..." Rangiku had a cardboard box in her arms, likely containing some festival items. Not that he really cared. "Why not?"

"I've got work to do." The boy continued to work at the paperwork.

"I see..." The woman's voice tightened. "I see that you don't have that much paperwork, so are you going to use the same excuse you always do? The festivals are fun? What's your real reason?"

The small taicho looked up again, a surprised look on his face. "My real reason? I guess I've never really enjoyed the festivals Momo and I used to go to."

"Never?" Two arms folded across her ample chest after setting an item from the box down. "Something bad always happened?"

"No, I just never have enjoyed a festival so I don't see the point."

"_Liar... you enjoyed the festivals taicho drag you too._" Rangiku shook her head instead of saying said thought out loud. "There hasn't been one festival you've enjoyed?"

The boy paused. "No... even when I went with taicho I was forced to have fun. I mean, there isn't a time..." There came a pause then as if something had hit him. He shook his head then and his head darted down to his paperwork. "There was one time..."

"One time?"

"It was... it was before I died. I don't want to talk about it." The boy continued his work, not noticing the rather hurt look the woman gave him. The hurt wasn't there because she was hurt he wasn't wanting to have fun with her or at all, but because she realized something else.

Looking away she spoke very carefully before leaving the room. "It wouldn't hurt to try and have fun for once."

Toshiro didn't respond or even notice that she had left. When he looked up once he finished the paperwork and his curiosity got the better of him. Standing up he walked over to the small coffee table and looked down. Seeing the object on the table caused him to blink a couple of times in surprise.

**M**

"Festival! Festival!"

A brown haired female turned to glare at the small white haired child, her pig tails flipping as she jerked her head around in irritation. "Shiro-chan!"

"Now, now Momo-chan. He's just excited about the festival. Be sure not to lose him this time around." The small granny held out some money for the two.

Momo in turn turned to her grandmother. "It's not my fault he's always getting lost and coming home without me."

"It's not my fault!" The small child suddenly frowned.

"Yes it is!"

"Now, now you too."

"It isn't my fault." A sniffle came out of the child's nose after muttering the statement under his breath. "Adults are scary big."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Momo shook her head.

Toshiro suddenly held up his arms. "I wanna be bigger!"

"You're still little."

"I won't ever get bigger?"

"No... no. She just means it will take you a lot of time to grow bigger. Be patient little one."

"I... how is what I said even..." Momo shook her head. "Come on Shiro-chan. Be sure to not let go of my hand this time. If you let go you're a bad child, understand me."

The small boy simply followed along, a smile on his face. When they arrived at the festival one small finger pointed up at the glowing lanterns. "Look! Pretty!"

"Yes... now come on." Momo tugged him after her, delving into the crowd. While the adults could easily see her, they couldn't see the small child with her. Toshiro also struggled to keep up.

"Nee-nee?" Suddenly his small hand couldn't hold on much longer and his fingers lost their grip on the nice secure hand and the white haired babe found himself in the midst of many adults, all of them complete strangers. His foster sister was no longer in site. He then did the one thing he knew to do in this particular situation and burst into tears.

A voice that was familiar despite being muffled suddenly came to him, causing him to open his eyes and see a fox faced mask. The man wearing the mask wore a white yukata and had short silver hair. Nothing else could be seen. "Why are you crying little one?"

**M**

Rangiku moved through the festival wishing that she could have taken her small taicho with her. The child was such a pain though when it came to the festivals. "_Come on Rangiku. If the memory is from before he died he doesn't want to remember having happy memories. Isn't it better to think nobody cared for you then not being able to remember someone that cared for you?"_

Bending over she looked at the beautiful combs someone was selling, wishing that Gin was there to buy her one. Of course, even if he had been _there... _meaning that he was still part of the daily function of Soul Society... he would have likely wandered off as he never could focus on things. Wishful thinking was honestly useless. She backed up suddenly into a small figure. She turned around to apologize.

What she saw under the lamp light caused her to pause, he breath coming short. In all likeliness her face was twisted up in surprise at the site, but she couldn't tell as she couldn't see her own face. There stood a silver haired child... perhaps youth. They were dressed in white and wore a fox mask with red marks on it. Finally words came out, and she found herself speaking without realizing she was saying anything. "Gin?"

"What?" Nanao's head suddenly perked up, confusion in her voice as to why Rangiku would say it.

The person Rangiku saw though took off before her friend could see the figure. The busty female though saw the direction they took off in and thus the fukutaicho of the tenth quickly followed. She turned the corner though only to find that the figure was gone completely. Nanao came up beside her. "What's going on?"

"I was just seeing things." The woman startled then. She looked down at the ground and saw something glint. Picking it up she twisted it in her fingers, realizing it was one of the combs from the vendor. Going back she held it out. "Do you recognize this?"

"I sold that to a child awhile ago." This statement caused Rangiku to frown.

**M**

The little old lady sat in the room, watching as Momo came into the room. "Where is Toshiro?"

The small female looked up. "Didn't he come back already? He always does when he gets lost."

"Momo... you can't leave him alone."

"It's not my fault he lets go of my hand!"

"Momo, he's not as strong with you. A simple bump will cause him to let go."

"But the other times he's come back."

"Go to bed. If he doesn't come back by the morning you will go and look for him. Right now it is too dark."

The brown haired female let out a deep sigh before climbing into her futon. She soon dozed off, only to hear the sound of a lullaby which caused her eye's to open half lidded. The first thing she noted was that Toshiro was in bed with his futon, meaning he had come home during the night. In the soft glow of the dying fire she made out another figure.

The person was dressed in a white yukata, there feet wearing a short set of socks while on of their hands grasped onto the sandals they had removed from their feet. The person's hair was silver and cut short to his head. Upon the man's face was a mask. Suddenly the man turned to look at her and she saw the white fox mask with red marks. She clamped her eyes shut as well as her lips tightly.

**M**

Things felt better despite the fact her mind was still reeling from the idea that her taicho betrayed her. She walked through the festival with her two former classmates, a smile on her face. Both Renji and Izuru were dressed in kimonos specifically tailored for festival purposes while she wore a fancy kimono and her hair was up.

"_I haven't had this much fun at a festival in a long time."_

Her zampaktuo normally didn't argue with her but spoke up then. "_Remember when Shiro-chan kept getting lost when you were younger?_"

"_Sheesh. Why did he always have to let go of my hand? And then I always got a lecture from granny. That one time..._" Momo's thoughts slowed down. "_... was really bad._"

In front of her was a small figure with white hair. Said figure wore a white yukata and that exact same fox max. That nightmare from so long ago didn't seem so much like a nightmare. Her mouth opened to say something, her eyes widening in fright. The person though was the wrong size, not much smaller so she tried to shake it off as being just a coincidence.

However, the figure turned to look at her as if it realized she had been looking at her. The fox masked person simply stared at her and she felt a sudden creepy feeling in regards to the figure and the fear that would crop up from the dreams she had ever so rarely suddenly surged forward. Izuru noticed that she was upset. "Momo? Is something the matter?"

By the time her two companions looked in the direction that she stared in the figure was gone.

**M**

A young man wearing a fox mask moved through the crowded festival. On his back was a white haired child who nestled his face into the back of his neck and in the silver hair. A few tears rolled down the child's cheeks still, but the young man honestly couldn't blame the child as he had been left to wander in the crowd on his own. They continued to walk, only for something to suddenly catch the child's eye and a small hand to reach out to point. "Pretty!"

"Pretty?" The man turned to look in the direction the child was pointing and noticed the booth for catching small fish with paper nets. He walked over and watched as the fish swim. "Do you want one?"

The child shook his head as he snuggled close. "Pretty."

"Yes... they are pretty." The child on his back was delighted by the fish swimming about, memorized. It was like the times the young man had watched the child watch a butterfly. Carefully he set the boy down and knelt over while the child crouched on his knees and watched the fish swim about, each being quite the unique creature.

The tears finally stopped and the boy began to hum a soft tune. One small hand reached up to touch the young man's hand. At first the man flinched at the touch, but then gently held the small fingers between two fingers. The want to never let go of that hand was there, but he knew eventually he would have to let go again.

**M**

Rangiku walked through the festival, her mouth twisted up as she thought about the situation. Nanao was concerned about her behavior but didn't push the issue beyond the quick question of whether or not they would work on finding the child who had bought the item and returning it. For all the woman knew that was what had her so worked up.

As they walked along they heard the voice of another fukutaicho come at them in a boisterous manner waving at them as he did so. "Rangiku!"

"Renji..." The woman looked up at the three friends and noticed that Momo was upset about something. "Hinamori, is something the matter."

"I saw something."

The red haired shinigami's eyes narrowed. "Yeah... you're seeing things."

"I won't _deny_ that I'm seeing things! That doesn't change the fact what I saw was creepy."

"What did you see?" Nanao frowned.

"She saw a young man with silver hair wearing a white yukata as well this fox mask," Izuru said.

Rangiku blinked a couple of times. "I saw this child."

Nanao turned her head towards her friend. "What do you mean you saw this child?"

"It wasn't a child. It was..." Momo frowned as she looked quickly to the ground. "Did you really see it Rangiku-san?"

"Yes. I did see him."

"I think I'll head back to the barracks there is something I need to talk to granny about tomorrow."

The small female left with her friends. The fukutaicho of the eighth turned to Rangiku, scowling as she did so. "What was that about?"

"I wonder..."

**M**

Gin's fingers entwined with Rangiku's as she tugged on his hand. "Come on! You should have some fun with me at the festival." He remained silent, not saying anything to his young companion. Letting out a deep breath she took a deep sigh. "Just meet me at the festival, will you?"

The young shinigami blinked a couple of times as she slipped away. Going to the closet he slipped on the white yukata as well as the fox max he had come to like. He walked past the office where Aizen was only to hear the man chuckle as he spoke with some of the other men of the fifth division. "Creepy as always I see Gin. Just don't go scaring little children this time."

The young man slipped away and planned on finding Rangiku quickly which caused him too. He caught site though of two familiar figures and watched as they moved through the stalls. The white haired child at first had a look of excitement on his face but then the child felt the older one pick up her pace as her own excitement grew. Despite the fact he begged her not to let go the two became separated.

The child began to cry as more adults bumped into him. Gin swallowed, knowing that interfering was not something he could do. His bony fingers reached up and touched the mask and he found himself pausing, then moving forward. "_He can't recognize me with the mask on._" Stepping forward he spoke then, his voice muffled. "Why are you crying little one?"

The crying stopped and two bright teal eyes looked up at the man. "Tou-chan."

The man's breath pulled sharply. "No... not Tou-chan."

"Tou-chan."

Gin let out a sigh. "Why were you crying?"

"I let go of nee-nee's hand. Am I a bad child?"

"What do you mean?"

"She said if I let go I was a bad child."

"Did you try really, really hard to hold on?"

"I did. She wouldn't listen to me when I told her it was becoming hard Tou-chan!"

Another sigh came then. "If you didn't mean to let go then you're not a bad child. She's a bad child for not listening to you."

"I like nee-nee." The child began to pout.

"That doesn't change the fact she was a bad child."

"So... a child can be bad and people can still like them?"

"Yes." Gin looked at the boy, frowning behind the mask. "_Except me._"

The child then held his hands in the air, reaching for the man. "Up!"

The man stared for a bit, before scooping the child onto his shoulders. It would be another time that he ended up disappointed Rangiku but with tears still streaming down the child's face he very well couldn't leave the babe alone. Carefully he lifted the boy onto his shoulders and felt the child snuggle close.

**M**

Toshiro saw the mask on the table along with the white yukata. His eyes widened before his small hands reached down to touch the mask, his throat catching at the site of the familiar design. He held it close to his face, pressing his nose to the same part before turning it around and placing it to his face. The feelings that came didn't feel good, and yet in some ways they did.

Pulling the mask away he looked down at the other item. Carefully he picked it up and fingered the soft cloth. "_Rangiku did say I should try to enjoy myself. I want that feeling again, even if he's not here._"

Glancing at the doorway to see if anyone was coming to see him thinking of such a childish idea, he then clutched the items to his chest then went to the doorway to make sure no one was watching. He then snuck off to his quarters and closed the door behind him, setting the items onto the bed. The sun was setting, meaning the festival would start soon.

Quickly he removed his uniform and slipped the white yukata on. As he began to fold the cloth he found himself suddenly catching a whim of a scent that still lingered on the clothing. "It can't be."

Shaking his head he finished pulling it on and then slipped the mask on. He fished through his uniform and pulled out his purse and slipped it into his sleeve before heading out. The lantern glow caused that familiar feeling to well up again, though he wasn't sure if it was a good or bad memory. What he did know was that it was intense feeling wise and for once he wanted to feel it.

The smell of food cooking reminded him that he hadn't eaten dinner. He slipped over to one of the stalls and bought some hot food. He moved to find a place to eat when he realized someone was watching him. He turned to see his foster sister dressed in a pretty kimono. He stared, remembering that whenever a festival came up that she would let go of his hand and he would become lost. Not to mention she was always in charge of the money when he was very young.

Letting out a deep sigh he slipped away before her two companions could see him. It was evident that something about his appearance had bothered her. He found a nice place that would allow him to easily climb up onto the roof and he began to eat the food, enjoying the taste as well as how it felt in his stomach.

The next thing he did was explore the booths. For some strange reason he was drawn to the pond with the little fish and when the man asked him if he wanted to try he did so. It took a few times with the paper scoop, but he managed to get himself a fish. He continued to wander, trying different things as well as feeling safe under his mask and not having anyone who knew him judge him.

He then spied the combs and bought one, thinking of Rangiku as he did so. "_Honestly... I wouldn't have come out here and enjoyed myself if it weren't for her._"

He walked away and looked at his money. There was still plenty, the things he did not even making a dent in what he normally carried. It was then that someone bumped into him. He turned to look at the person, only to see his fukutaicho looking right at him. "Gin?"

The next thing he knew he was moving away from her and hurrying off, having tucked his prizes in a small bag he had also bought except for the small fish. He didn't notice that he had dropped the comb. He lost her and continued a bit, picking out a few treats to take back with him to the division as well as a small bowl for his fish.

**M**

Gin's hand held the small child as the moved through the festival. The child honestly didn't want anything and was content at looking at things, almost as if it was his first time experiencing such things. They worked their way around at the child's pace while Gin kept an eye out to make sure that a certain female didn't cross their path.

Finally he bought some fried octopus balls and the two went and sat down. He watched as the child ate the item and smiled at him. Toshiro first shoved an entire one into his mouth causing steam to come out and him to wave his small hands in the air. He swallowed and looked like he was in great pain.

"You eat them like this Shiro-chan." Gin tipped his mask up slightly believing that the child wouldn't have been able to see his face. He made a puffing sound as the child watched with wide eyes before biting the food in half. "Like that so you won't burn your mouth."

The child repeated what he did before smiling at Gin again. "Yummy!"

The silver haired youth watched as the child ate away at the treat, a wide smile on his face. Eventually though he saw two bright teal eyes close and the boy collapse against his side, a soft snoring sound coming from the little one. Then came one of the rare smiles Gin ever gave.

**M**

Rangiku headed back to the division after a few drinks. The first thing she did was go to the division offices to confirm what she was thinking. The two objects she had taken out of the box of Gin's things was indeed gone. Letting out a deep sigh she headed to her taicho's room just as the fireworks began to go off. She found him sitting on the porch area watching the sky. "Taicho?"

"Matsumoto?" The boy blinked a couple of times before reaching for the bag. She noticed the small bowl with the fish next to him. "I have something for you."

"You mean this?" Rangiku held out the comb watching as her small taicho looked at her with wide eyes.

"Yes..."

"You dropped it when you ran away from me."

Toshiro glanced away. "I didn't want you to know."

"What? That you took the mask from the table?"

"Tou-chan's mask? No." The boy missed her drawing a deep breath. "It felt like I could have fun if people didn't see my face and wonder why I a captain was goofing off.'

"Tou-chan's mask."

The boy glanced over at the item in question which was at his side. "I don't know how you came across this mask, but it's just like the one I remember Tou-chan wearing."

"Wait..." Rangiku paused, frowning as she did so. "You mean to tell me you remember something from when you were younger.'

"Yeah, I'm surprised that I remembered something from before I died." The boy's fingers gripped the edge of the porch. "I had remembered a bit when you asked that question, but I remembered a bit more when I saw the mask. I found myself wanting to feel the same way I did when I was with him."

"You've never had that feeling when you've gone to a festival before?"

"Truth be told I lied about not having fun with taicho. This feeling though was different." Toshiro looked her right in the eye. "Momo had a habit of letting go of my hand when I was younger and she always had the money, so I ended up going home most of the time. It wasn't as if we couldn't afford much and she always managed to bring me home a treat, but having something brought to you isn't the same as getting it for yourself."

"That explains the containers for foods I see." Rangiku knelt next to the fish. "I see you got yourself a friend. Does he have a name?"

"It doesn't have a name. Since I don't know whether it is male or female it doesn't feel right giving it a name and I don't want the twelfth division taicho telling me whether it is male or female. He'll kill it."

"How about a name that works for both male and females?"

"How about just Fish? It is straight to the point and he can't argue about it."

The busty female held back a chuckle. "You just told me that you couldn't tell if it was male or female. Never mind. When the fireworks are done you should get to bed, but in the mean time..." Rangiku sat down next to him. "... I'll enjoy them with you."

Her hand then reached out to touch his and was glad when he didn't pull away.

**M**

Rangiku was not happy. No matter where she looked she couldn't find Gin anywhere. She stopped to look at a bunch of combs only to have the person selling them ask if her boyfriend was going to be buying one for her. This in truth stung and she scurried away, miffed that Gin hadn't shown up. She didn't feel up to getting snacks.

She had dressed up in a very nice kimono. She had recently bought it in order to surprise him, but as she thought about this it also crossed her mind that nothing really surprised Gin. He was always staying away from her and not noticing her. It felt as if they would never be more then friends. Finally she settled on going and sitting on the roof of the tenth division.

She felt a hand touch hers and she turned hoping that it was Gin, only to frown. "Taicho?"

"Hey... what's with the sad face little Ran-chan?" Isshin held her hand tightly.

She yanked her hand away and pouted then. "Gin was supposed to meet me for the festival, but he never showed up."

A hand then reached out and ruffled her hair causing the work she had done to make herself look pretty go to waste. "I could go and find him for you. You put a lot of work into that, and it would be a waste."

It was then that they both felt someone flash step up onto the roof. "Ran-chan?"

The female turned and pouted. Isshin though could see that she was holding back tears. Letting out a sigh he stood up. He walked over to Gin and pulled him aside and whispered into the boy's ear. "Hey... you do realize that Ran-chan has feelings for you?" To the man's surprise the boy opened his eyes up for once, a frown replacing the smile. The smile wiped off the man's face. "You do know then."

The young shinigami looked away. "Things are complicated."

"It isn't as if you're married." Isshin was surprised to see the look on Gin's face. A smirk spread on his face and he suddenly lifted the young shinigami into the air. "My, aren't you cute."

The silver haired youth just stared at the man while Rangiku continued to sulk.

**M**

The fukutaicho of the tenth division shuffled through some photo albums when she came across a picture of Gin when he was younger and actually smiling. Frowning, she carefully removed the picture along with a few others of similar content. She then headed to the office to speak with her small taicho. "Taicho... I have something for you."

"More paperwork?" The boy looked up with a rather irritated look.

Sliding the door closed she shook her head. "No."

She walked over his desk and set the photos down, biting her lip as she wasn't sure how he would react. The boy carefully picked up the pictures. He stared at the first one for a few minutes, his mouth opening. He then did something that surprised her. He came around the side of the desk and hugged her around the neck. Her own eyes widened in surprise. "You're amazing."

The boy then pulled away. "I don't know how you did it, finding actual pictures of Tou-chan. Are you sure I can keep them."

The first thing that crossed her mind was, "_I did say that I had something for him._" The second thing she thought was, "_He didn't recognize it was Gin._" Taking a deep breath she smiled at him. "It's fine for you to keep them."

"I'll go and put them in my room."

Rangiku took a deep breath then. "Hey, taicho... take the day off." The look on his face was of complete surprise. "Let me finish the paper work."

"You went to all that trouble to get these for me and I haven't the faintest idea how you found them. For all I know you had to do some things you weren't supposed to. I mean... there is no telling where my Tou-chan is now and he's likely way, way older then me now and..."

The woman shook her head. "Please... just go and enjoy the pictures."

"Yes... with who knows what trouble you went to get them I can't exactly let others see that I have them."

When the boy disappeared Rangiku took a deep breath. "_He honestly doesn't recognize that is Gin._"

"_He also thinks that you got the pictures from the world of the living. He's living in denial, isn't he?_"

"_About himself dying or about having good memories about his father?_"

**M**

Rangiku found herself thinking carefully about what had occurred when Momo came in. "Not now Hinamori."

"I need to talk to you about something. About that... that person was Shiro-chan wasn't it. The person with the fox mask?"

The fukutaicho of the tenth shook her head. "Yes... but what does this have to do with anything?"

"How did he come to have that mask. I haven't seen it since he was little and... granny says... she says the man with the fox mask I saw when I was younger was Shiro-chan's father. But... that means his father is Ichimaru?"

Rangiku took a deep breath. "So I was right."

"But..." The small female frowned. "Then he cheated on you?"

The woman's eye's widened. "No. I mean, I don't know."

"But you would remember that he's your kid! You don't remember that."

"Hinamori, there are things from early on in my life that I don't remember." The woman stacked the unfinished papers together. "I know you want to be helpful, but..."

"I honestly... if he didn't cheat on you he..."

The corners of her mouth twisted up weakly. "I know. It's upsetting you. I ask that you let me handle this. Don't go spreading this around either."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." Rangiku watched as the boy let out a deep sigh. She then stood up and went back to her photo albums looking for the right picture. She then found a few of Gin with a real smile on his face with his eyes open. Letting out a deep breath she went to find her small taicho. He was carrying something. "Taicho... can we talk privately?"

The boy paused, looking at her in surprise. "Sure. Let me finish this and I'll meet you at the office."

"How about your room? There is..." The woman took a deep breath. "Well, there is a reason that place would be best."

"All right."

The woman went and sat outside of the captains quarters. When her taicho arrived she stood up. She held out the photo. "This is for you."

Toshiro took the photo while she rubbed her lip between her teeth. There was a silence as she waited for his response. His eyes widened in horror and then he moved to open the door. He hurried over to his drawer and pulled out the photos that she had already given him. He looked at her then with a confused look, holding out the newest picture. His voice was strained. "This is a picture of Tou-chan when he was older?"

"Taicho... you do know who those pictures are of."

The boy glanced at the ground. "Ichimaru. They're of Ichimaru." She watched as he sat on the bed looking at the picture. "How come he never smiled like this around me?"

Rangiku frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I always thought he was cold hearted... but he isn't that way is he?"

"No. He isn't. Well, he tends to be distant towards the people he doesn't know.."

"That explains where I get it from." The boy set it on the dresser. "Are you _sure _I can keep these pictures? They have to be something that is important to you."

"Taicho, it's fine. I have many, many happy memories of him You don't have any. This is the least I can do."

"He's my father, whose my mother?" The boy looked up. "If you were my mother, you would have told me?"

"You know what amnesia is?" Rangiku took a deep breath. "I'm sure there is a way we can find out."

"Don't!" Toshiro looked up. "I don't want to find out that you're not my mother!"

"Taicho... it doesn't matter if I gave birth to you or not, I _am_ your mother." She went over and sat next to him.

"Please... tell me more about him."

"Sure. I can do that."


	13. 5:1:3 Marigold

_This is Week 5: Challege 1 ~ part 3: I'm working with each flower for each Gotei Thirteen division as well as the meaning._

_**Summary**__: Gin's body is brought back from the carnage of the Winter War. Feelings well up in Toshiro that he can't explain as well as a strange realization.  
__**Notes:**__Last one took a lot of time to write. This one is AU to the time line a bit._

**Marigold  
**_~Despair~_

War brings death. That is a fact of life. Life also ends in death. That is another fact of life. And yet death in the long run is painful.

Toshiro fidgeted in his division, his arm in a sling due to the injury he received from Aizen that had detached one of his limbs. He attempted to find the paper he was trying to find only to suddenly become frustrated to the point that he shoved all of the papers onto the floor knocking over a bottle of ink in the process. It was then that Rangiku came into the room and saw the mess.

"Taicho... if you need help you can just ask."

"You don't do your work in the first place." The boy glared at her. "Plus, I made this mess on purpose."

"You purposefully dumped a bottle of ink onto the carpet as well as some of your papers?"

"Fine. I knocked it over when I knocked the papers over. I got fed up trying to shuffle through them one handed."

The woman let out a deep sigh, then went over and scooped the papers up. "Taicho. I need to go to the forth division on an errand. I'll help you when I get back."

The boy frowned. "What kind of errand?"

"I have to identify someone."

"Oh." As a moment of silence followed what the small taicho said, Rangiku found him suddenly by her side as she was leaving. "I'll go with you."

"Taicho..." The woman looked down, only to see the particular look he gave people when he was honestly trying to help him. "Well, you do need to get out of the office and going for a walk would do you good."

Upon entering the morgue Rangiku shuttered, watching as Unohana stood by a particular covered sheet. The older woman looked at the small captain. "Hitsugaya Taicho... I didn't expect you to be here as well."

Instead of an answer the boy simply looked away. The woman then uncovered the sheet and the small taicho turned his head back. The next thing they knew the door was opening and slamming shut. Rangiku blinked a couple of times. "Yes... that's Gin. Excuse me while I go and talk to taicho." She stepped out of the room, glaring at the boy who was staring at the wall. "That wasn't polite. That's not proper etiquette." She then caught the wide eyed look. "Taicho... are you all right."

He looked up at her. "I don't feel it."

"Feel it? You mean sad that he's dead? Honestly, you don't have to with all things considered."

"That's... no, I mean. You'd think with what he did with Hinamori and me I'd be happy he was dead. Instead..." the boy turned and stared at the wall. "It hurts."

Rangiku took a deep breath. "It hurts? You weren't exactly close to Gin."

The boy thought about what she said then shook his head. "No. I mean..." There came a silence. "Ever since I joined the shinigami ranks I've been pretending not to know him."

"Well... his personality is problematic. Lots of people like to pretend that they don't know him."

"That's not what I meant." The boy turned and looked at her. "I mean I've known for a _very_ long time that I've been lying to myself about dying and coming to Soul Society."

"What do you mean?'

"I was born here Rangiku."

"Taicho..." Rangiku shook her head, her brow wrinkling with worry.

"I mean that he's my father."

"That can't be. How could you possibly know that?"

"Because I remember him one day up and disowning me and telling me he wasn't my father despite the fact he and granny had said otherwise."

"What..."

"Rangiku... he did it because he didn't want you to know he was cheating on you. I wanted to pretend because I knew he abandoned me. That hurts... but what really hurts is the fact he's now dead and I can't do anything to try and get me to accept me. Nothing I did was good enough."

"That's not true. None of what you say is true."

"You only say that because you don't want to admit it yourself."

"No, taicho... he didn't abandon you or disown you."

"Why did he leave me?" When he got no answer he turned to leave, only to find his wrist grabbed.

"Think about it. Your father was special."

"I don't _want_ to hear that. Particularly because I could never live up to that."

"Taicho..." Rangiku's grip tightened. "Taicho, Gin always said positive things to me about you."

"You're lying."

"He's also the reason you're special and the way you are."

"I don't want to hear it Matsumoto."

"That's because you're not wanting to think things through because your feelings are hurt." The woman took a deep breath. "Taicho..." She felt the boy pull away. "He didn't want Aizen to use you as another one of his playing pieces."

The tension relaxed and the boy turned to her, his eyes still watering. "Why does it still hurt?"

"Because... he's dead. That means you can't hear this from his own mouth. But I knew him. It explains a lot."

"You know him and yet he cheated on you. He hid that from you."

"I've known since I met you that you were my little one despite the fact you always insisted you died and came to Soul Society. I knew despite the fact I don't remember giving birth to you."

The boy simply stared at her, both hands not moving as one was in a sling and the other was lifted up by her holing onto her sleeve. He then tugged the sleeve away. "It's better not to feel emotions."

"That's not true."

"If you feel emotions, you end up showing them."

"At least you're showing them too me and not pretending as if everything is all right like he does... did." Rangiku let out a deep breath. "I don't want to see anything happen to you. Also... in many ways you ended up being better then him. He even said so. Those were his own words taicho."


	14. 5:1:4: Bellflower

_This is Week 5: Challege 1 ~ part 4: I'm working with each flower for each Gotei Thirteen division as well as the meaning._

_**Summary**__: The results of the Winter War meant that Rangiku was dead. Pardoned from his crimes Gin finds himself in a deep depression while Toshiro finds that the man is avoiding him.  
__**Notes**__: This story is an AU._

**Bellflower  
**_~those who grieve are loved~_

Pain shot through his left shoulder and knee, causing the boy to jolt awake. His right hand reached over to his left shoulder and felt that it there despite the fact Aizen had cut it. He then sat up, his bright teal eyes seeing that the sheets covered a pair of legs instead of one full leg and another cut of short. He let out a sigh and collapsed back onto the bed, his small hand reaching up to touch his forehead. "We won." He then sat up. "_I have things I need to do_."

He moved out of the bed and quickly dawned the uniform that was near by, his left leg sore from the injury. He then found himself falling, only to be caught by Hanataro. "Hitsugaya Taicho. You really should be resting."

"I need to see Matsumoto. I have division duties, reports to fill out, things to do." Toshiro grabbed onto other boy's shoulder. "By the way, what room is Matsumoto in?" There came then silence, causing him to look up. "Wait... where is she?"

Hanataro let out a deep sigh. "She's in the morgue."

"Identifying Ichimaru's body?"

"That..." The other boy looked away. "Let me at least find you a crutch to lean on. You'll move faster that way. Until then wait here."

About half an hour later Hanataro returned, giving him the crutch to use. Toshiro pushed himself up and limped over to the morgue. His right hand gripped the handle and turned it. He stepped in, only to freeze in the doorway at the site in front of him. His head began to shake in disbelief. Gin was standing in front of him, his bony hand having pulled back the sheet to reveal that Rangiku was the one on the slab. "No..."

This sound caused the man to startle as Unohana also looked up. The next thing Toshiro knew the man had set the cloth down and was coming straight at him. As the bony hand reached out to grab the child's face he felt himself stumbling backwards, only to find himself caught by Gin grabbing the front of is uniform. The man then pulled him out of the room. "What are you doing out of bed?"

"Why's Matsumoto..." The boy's throat tightened, causing him to be unable to say anymore.

"She _died_. I couldn't protect her."

"You!" Toshiro's temper flared. "How do you expect to protect someone when you're off being a traitor! Why didn't you put some thought into that before you... you... why are you here and not in jail!"

"It's a long story. I'm really not in the mood right now." The man let go of the front of the boy's shirt and his hand reached up again towards the boy's face, causing the small taicho to turn his head away from him.

"Oi... don't do that. Seriously... I've done nothing to you..." Gin paused for a few seconds, only to grab him the same way as before. Toshiro felt himself swallow due to the jerking motion. The next thing he knew the man was pulling him away from the place. The boy stumbled a few times as they headed back to his room, only to find himself tossed onto the bed. "You should be in bed."

The man turned to leave, only to stop when the boy spoke up again. "I should be in bed? I wanted to see how Matsumoto is doing."

Gin turned to look at him, his pale teal eyes open as he did so. "Rangiku's dead."

"I saw that."

"You shouldn't have seen that."

The boy's cheeks puffed slightly from anger before his fingers grasped the sheets on the bed. "You have no right to tell me something like that as if I have nothing to do with her. I may only be her taicho, but..."

"I meant you shouldn't have to see her like that." The silver haired man then slipped from the room.

"Exactly what is that supposed to mean?"

**M**

The boy lay on the bed in the fourth division sulking about _that_. "_Why did she have to die instead of him?_"

"_Perhaps he's asking the same question?_"

"_Hyorinmaru... how could be be asking such a question when he choose to side with Aizen this whole time? No... seriously. If he cared about her he wouldn't have left. There was no reason to. If I was in his position... if I was in his position I would have run with her and gotten her away from danger._"

"_Young one... you can't always get the person to run with you. They have to be willing as well as knowing._"

"_Then he should have stood his ground and protected her. She's gone because of him._" Toshiro opened his eyes as he felt someone enter the room. He turned his head to see it was the captain of the fourth division.

"You shouldn't have seen that."

"Ichimaru said the same thing to me, but I don't understand why he said that." The boy sat up and looked at her. A frown spread across his face.

"Is that really a memory of her that you want."

The child taicho's bright teal eyes widened in surprise. "Is that a memory... I mean. I honestly don't understand."

Unohana came over and sat by the boy. One hand reached out to touch his heart. "How do you feel here about what happened to her."

"It hurts. It emotionally hurts. But what does that have to do with anything?"

"Again, do you really want that memory?"

Toshiro's mouth opened, then closed as he thought about it. "_Do I want a memory of Matsumoto like that? What she looked like in the morgue..._" The boy blinked a couple of times. "Actually... I don't think you have to worry about that. Ichimaru was rather quick about distracting me so I don't recollect what I saw. I mean, I know she was there, but..." A sigh of relief came from Unohana. "You're actually relieved?"

"I have many memories of the dead, including love ones. This is one that I don't want you to have."

Two eyes widened before he child shook his head. "But... I'll see her at... there will be a wake."

"Seeing someone in the morgue is different then seeing them after makeup has been put onto them for a wake."

Toshiro looked away, a frown spreading across his face. "What about Gin?"

"He's going to be pardoned."

The boy turned, his voice choking as he spoke. "Why! It's his fault she's dead! He's a traitor! Why..."

"He purposefully went with Aizen so that he could turn on him at what he felt was the right time."

A heavy feeling suddenly came to the small taicho's chest as well as head. "But... he... why would he... he could be lying."

"He has no reason to lie anymore."

"She's dead because..."

Unohana interrupted him. "He knows. He knows he messed up." Toshiro looked then at his lap, his hands reaching to grip his pants leg tightly. "It's no different from how you messed up with Hinamori Momo. In the long run matters were out of both your hands yet a person you cared about died."

"Do you think I care about that? That..."

"I honestly don't blame you. Things though are complicated."

**M**

The rain poured down the day of the wake. By that time Toshiro was back at the tenth, the limbs on the left side of his body sore and stiff from the injuries. He woke up and placed a hand on his forehead, a frown creasing his face. He then headed to the office, opening the door thinking he would get some paperwork done. However he found himself pausing when he looked at the empty room. Water dripped off his bangs before he let out a sigh.

He walked over to the shelf he knew Rangiku always kept a towel for days like that and began to towel off before going and leaning against the wall, his arms folded across his chest. His throat felt tight as he looked around the room and waited for the time for the wake to occur. He then headed over to the meeting hall and slipped in, only to feel an unsettling feeling in the room. Looking up he saw that his division members were staring at Gin.

"Ichimaru..."

"I'm leaving."

The man moved to brush by him, only to have the boy grab his sleeve. "So you're going to leave her wake?"

"I'm obviously not welcome. I came long enough to say goodbye." The man then left while Toshiro dripped on the floor.

"Taicho..."

"What is it."

"Ichimaru was here when we came in, but none of us... we didn't want to tell him to leave."

"Why would you tell him to leave?" Toshiro watched his division members before letting out a sigh. "Look. He's been pardoned. He was close to Matsumoto. Treating him like he shouldn't be at her wake doesn't feel right."

He slipped in to the seat, turning his head when Unohana came in. He couldn't help but notice that one of the pillows was empty. Suddenly a sneeze came and he covered his nose. "Hitsugaya Taicho... you weren't using an umbrella to travel between buildings." There came silence. "Have you looked at her and said your goodbyes?"

Letting out a sigh he got up and took one of the white chrysanthemums and placed it into the casket with her. He then stepped back and sat next to the taicho of the fourth. "What kind of funeral would I have if I died."

"Captain's have a majorly public funeral that is much more elaborate then this that the casket is publicly cremated. However..."

"That doesn't make me feel better."

"... as I was going to say, I don't think you're going to die any time soon. You're very young."

Two small hands gripped the pant legs while his mouth twisted up in frustration. "So was Matsumoto. At least this time there is a body for the morning process."

"You're referring to your former taicho?" The question went unanswered and they sat in silence while Toshiro thought about his feelings, but this didn't make the feeling that bothered him go away.

**M**

A fever hit Toshiro that night as he lay in his quarters, causing his entire body to shake. His head spun and he found himself unable to get up the next morning. He didn't snap out of the deep sleep until one of his division members came in to see him. "Hitsugaya Taicho!" The boy opened up his eyes. He tried sitting up, only to collapse back to the bed. "You didn't have to go and get medicine for yourself."

The boy's eyes had closed as he fell back to the bed. He opened them again to see the medicine on the side of the bed. "I don't remember..."

The division member pulled the sheets back up. "I'll arrange for someone to see to your care."

Things were a blur for the next few days. By the time he was sitting up the sun was shining and a captain's meeting was called. He stepped into the room, receiving a smile from Ukitake. "I'm glad that you're feeling better."

"I should really be the one saying that to you." The corners of the boy's mouth turned up weakly.

Kyoraku laughed. "We're just glad you're better."

Toshiro then listened to the older captains speak, the topic being who should take the place of third, fifth and ninth division taicho's. "_Ichimaru... no._" The boy frowned, his foot tapping. "What about those people who came and helped us during the Winter War?"

"What about them? They're traitors?" Soifon shook her head at him.

The boy's eyes widened. "Really? What did they do wrong, because I never heard of it. They also don't seem like they're bad people."

"They..."

The head captain interrupted the second division taicho's rant about them before it could get far. "Forty-six ordered them destroyed because they were hollowfying through some unnatural manner.""

"But they're _fine_ now and it _wasn't_ their faults?"

"What of it?"

"They seem to be of the taicho and fukutaicho levels."

"Are you crazy!" Soifon reacted negatively, causing the boy to flinch. "That would be like inviting Ichimaru Gin to take back his position as a captain."

Silence came over the room. The captain of the seventh division spoke then. "I think there is a difference here in the fact they have done nothing wrong and Ichimaru Gin went out of his way to do things he shouldn't have. Mind you, he may have planned all along to turn on Aizen but he was foolish to do it all on his own. That's not captain material, and if there are three captains who are better fit to take the position then him then let them take it."

"But..."

"Isn't Soul Society their home as well?" Toshiro piped up.

"Home?" Ukitake looked up. "Yes. It was their home. But do they feel like they belong anymore?"

The child taicho's head darted down, a frown on his face. Soifon waved her hand. "Come on. Of course they don't belong."

"Why?" Kyoraku piped up. "Why don't they belong? Personally I would love to see Lisa again and I'm sure my Nanao-chan would like to see her. Explaining to her though that Lisa isn't dead... that's another matter entirely. Well, I did tell her simply that Lisa wasn't coming back."

"The whole matter didn't sit well." Ukitake folded his arms. "The forty-six's decision was made based on them being a threat at the current time."

"Not to mention the fact forty-six's decisions aren't always truly just." Toshiro piped up suddenly, only to shrink back as Soifon glared him.

"It honestly isn't a bad idea." Yamamoto added something else. "I will speak with the new forty-six about over turning the decision with the new information we have."

**M**

Getting used to the members of Shinji's group was honestly another matter. Toshiro was there with Ukitake when the man proposed that they come back and there was hostility from some, particularly the female who enjoyed calling him a pervert. Somehow though after a bit of time Shinji was able to convince them to come back. Thus getting used to the members of this group became an issue.

When Shinji and Hiyori showed up at the fifth division Momo had a complete melt down. By melt down she ended up in an argument with the small blond about some minor thing that ended with Hiyori winning and Momo storming off as she couldn't come up with a counter argument. It also meant unfortunately for Momo that Hiyori had found yet another victim, one that was actually easier to goad then her normal "prey".

Kensei and Mashiro returned to the ninth division to find themselves hero worshiped by Hisagi. This caught the returning captain off guard. Rose also returned to the third division and found that Kira was quite interested in having a good working relationship with him. Love decided to take "retirement" but still hung out at his old division and also joined in the Men's Society's activies. Toshiro wondered how long it would be until he took over the head position of the group, but then again it might never happen.

Hachigen choose to take on an instructor position at the academy and also would take time to have tea with Ukitake at his division. Lisa returned to her old division and things got crazier as she had a similar personality to her taicho, which in turn led to additional complaints from people about sexual harassment claims.

One thing that seemed to be going nowhere to Toshiro was Ichimaru Gin. He didn't stay with any division and instead stuck to running errands and small jobs as people needed him to do so. He could be found hanging out around the fifth division if someone needed him and he wasn't running one of the errands and jobs, which in turn drove Momo up the wall as much as Hiyori did, but then Gin's presence also bothered her as well.

The small taicho was without a fukutaicho and thus a few times came by the fifth with errands and jobs for the man. "_He knows full well that there is a position open at my division._"

"_That position used to belong to Matsumoto. You're still blame him for her death and haven't forgiven him, not to mention the fact you could easily ask the eighth or ninth division taicho's for one of their fukutaicho. You could even have asked Hachigen._"

"_It's not that I'm being indecisive. I don't yet know the viazard, which in turn means that I don't yet have a working relationship with them. I think though with the way Ichimaru and I worked together that we could at least have a working relationship. I __could__ use his help._"

"_Yes... but with a fukutaicho you really need more then just a working relationship._"

The small taicho let out a mental sigh as he hid his spiritual pressure. He walked through division looking for the silver haired man, finding him lounging on the bench. "Ichimaru..." The man startled, then looked at the boy with open pale teal eyes. He moved to leave. Toshiro shook his head. "Wait... I have an errand I need..."

The man disappeared on him. The sound of bubblegum popping caused him to turn his head to see Hiyori behind him, bubblegum all over her face. She pulled the gum into her mouth and spoke around it. "He's avoiding you know."

"Excuse me?"

"The other times you came looking for him... he sensed you were coming and took off."

Toshiro looked away. He did the errand and ended up taking more time out of the day compared to if Gin had run it before heading over to visit Ukitake. He found the taicho speaking with Hachigen as they drank tea and ate sweets. The two were speaking outside so Toshiro was able to hear what they said out loud. "It's rather bad that Gin-kun is drinking like he is when he isn't doing those errands. His hearts not into it."

"Yes..." Ukitake paused in what he was saying and looked up at Toshiro. "Hitsugaya Taicho."

"What's this about Ichimaru drinking?"

"Word has it he's been doing quite a bit of drinking. Mind you, he hasn't been causing any problems but people say they can smell it on his breath and he has said some sharp remarks to people that haven't made any sense at all."

"The few times I've been near him I myself have smelled it." Ukitake shook his head. "You haven't noticed anything?"

"Me?" The boy blinked a couple of times. "Apparently Ichimaru's been avoiding me. I couldn't even get close to him today."

"That's strange. Well, he isn't very sociable person in the first place, but from what I've heard you've had the best relationship with him and did speak to him."

"That's only because Matsumoto was part of my division." Toshiro glanced at the ground. "To be honest there were times it feels like he thinks of me as just a replacement for him that Matsumoto found. So... we don't really have a good relationship. We just... dealt with each other." He thought then in his head. "_I guess Hyorinmaru was right that we wouldn't work together well now that I think about it._"

**M**

Knowing Ichimaru was purposefully trying to avoid him ate away at him, so he finally decided to confront the man. The man wasn't out at the fifth division, but he was able to find him near a bar heading back. The man paused as he saw Toshiro standing in front of him. An irritated sound could be heard. Since the man had rounded the corner and practically bumped into him Toshiro could also smell the alcohol on his breath.

"I..." Before Toshiro could say the man's name the man spun on his heals and headed back down the ally way. The child was quick and grabbed the sleeve of the man's uniform. "Now hold on."

Anger filled Ichimaru's voice. "Shiro-chan... let go."

"No way. I want to know the truth as to why you're avoiding me." He watched the man flinch. "It's because you feel Matsumoto used me as a replacement for you."

"Shiro-chan..."

"I'm not a replacement you know! What you're doing isn't fair!"

Gin yanked his sleeve away roughly and turned, his eyes narrowed and flashing with anger. His voice slurred slightly as well. "No, it isn't fair. Yes I'm avoiding you. It's not because I ever felt you were a damn replacement for me for her."

"Then what other reason would you be avoiding me for? There isn't any reason we can't get along?"

"Get along? Shiro-chan, I've done a lot of bad things. How can you say that we can get along?"

"You can't know until we try. You're getting along with anyone else."

"Yes, well unlike everyone else I have one more sin against you then anyone else don't I?"

"You referring to Hinamori?"

"I'm referring to the damn fact it's my fault your mother is dead!" Gin snapped the words out before shoving by the boy to quickly disappear.

"It's his fault that..." Toshiro shook his head. "_This is what they mean by him spouting off nonsense. I mean, it's his fault that Matsumoto is dead, not..._" There was a sudden pause. The boy took a deep breath and realization hit him hard. "_No... that..._" Another pause came then before he headed back to his division. He tried working on the paperwork, but fond himself burring his head in his hands.

**M**

A few days later Gin showed up at the tenth division. Toshiro flinched, not happy about the situation. The man glanced around, his behavior off. "Shiro-chan..."

The boy's throat tightened. "Why are you here?"

"I..." The man paused, looking around again.

"She's _not_ here."

"That..." There came another pause, anger written on Ichimaru's face.

"_He's drunk._" The boy felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "_He's drunk worse then Matsumoto._"

The man looked away. "I..."

"Ichimaru, about the other night."

"What do you mean the other night?" A confused look on the man's face at the child's statement.

"What do you mean about the other night?"

"Excuse me?" Toshiro stood up. "Why are you here if not to talk about the other night?"

"Shiro-chan, I haven't seen you since you came by the fifth division."

"Damn it Ichimaru! Get yourself sobered up! Why the hell are you drinking anyways!"

"That..." The man paused, looking away from the boy again. "There is a lot I'm dealing with. It's my fault she's dead you know. I..."

"I'm not your damn councilor!" The child's hands gripped the desk. "I hate you being like this!"

It was then that Ukitake turned the corner. "Hitsugaya Taicho..."

A frown was on the man's face. Gin turned and shoved a package into the man's arms. He muttered something that was audible. "You're third seats said you were heading here."

The man slipped through the door. The taicho of the thirteenth division stood in the doorway. "Hitsugaya Taicho, wasn't that a bit harsh."

"I can't..." Toshiro felt his voice shake. "I can't deal with him like this."

The boy noticed a bag of candy set on the desk. "Shiro-chan... can you look me in the face?" The boy looked up, his eye's slightly wet. The tears though wouldn't come as the boy was trying to prevent himself from crying. "You don't like seeing him like this?"

The small taicho reached a sleeve up to wipe away the tears. "No. I don't."

"I'll talk to him. I'll get him to detox."

"You don't have too."

"Someone has to speak with him about his drinking. He's not hurting anyone. Well, he is hurting himself. Point is though we can't let this behavior of his go on much longer. So don't worry about it."

**M**

A couple of weeks a knock came on the doorway. Toshiro's head darted up to see Gin looking at him. He glanced down, not sure how the person would react. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Are you drunk?"

"Despite the fact I'm still miffed with Ukitake about being pushy I haven't touched a drop for quite a few days. He said... he said you didn't like the fact I was drinking like I was." The man took a deep breath. "I still don't understand why you told me that I wasn't my councilor. You're..."

The man paused. The boy looked at the ground, fingering the edge of the paperwork in his hands causing it to vibrate a bit. "Just spit it out."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you're one of the last people I'd wish to bother with my emotional baggage."

"I'm not sure whether that is a compliment or an insult."

"Exactly what is that supposed to mean?"

"On one side you don't want to bother me about it, but on the other you don't trust me enough to tell me how you're feeling about things. Then again you really don't trust anyone enough to tell them how you feel, including Matsumoto if you really think about it. Was that really fair in the long run."

Gin opened his mouth then clamped it shut. After a few minutes he spoke again. "Well, you at least understand how hard it is for me to talk to me about my feelings. However, with Rangiku it goes a bit farther in the fact I don't want the two of you to worry. In reality my comment was neither a compliment or an insult."

"I guess it wasn't."

"There is something I need to tell you about Rangiku."

"I already know."

Silence came to the room as the silver haired man stared at the boy. Gin finally spoke up. "How? I never told you."

"The reason I didn't like the way you were drinking is because you can't even remember a conversation the two of us had you were so drunk. I bumped into you the other night and you told me."

"That's not possible."

"What do you mean it isn't possible?"

"I've been holding back telling you because..."

There came again silence. Toshiro held back rolling his eyes. "... because why?"

"Exactly how would anyone feel about someone coming out of the blue telling someone _that_?"

"You're telling me now."

"Because no matter how much I think of a way of telling you about _that_ I couldn't think of a good way to do it so I settled on just telling you."

"You're an idiot."

"I know I am. I still wouldn't just tell you without thinking about it before hand."

"Says the person whose always been known for saying things to people that are cruel without ever thinking of their feelings." Toshiro found himself leaning into his hands.

"Oh, I did think about their feelings. Wanting to hurt a persons feelings is different then not wanting to hurt them." Gin narrowed his eyes. "Do you really know what I want to tell you about Rangiku or are you trying to test me?"

"Ichimaru... one night not that long ago I went looking for you when you were out drinking. I wanted to ask why you were avoiding me. I asked you if it had to do with you thinking I was a replacement for you for Matsumoto. You said no. You said the reason you were avoiding me... and these are your exact words... 'I'm refering to the damn fact it's my fault your mother is dead'. You said that very clearly to me."

Toshiro watched as the man's face paled drastically before a string of curses came out of his mouth. The man then turned to leave. "Ichimaru!"

**M**

The boy worked on the paperwork well into the night, frustrated that it kept piling up. Hyorinmaru didn't help though. "_You're honestly worried about him._"

"_Why should I be?_"

"_Because you know that you're your father's child. You know exactly how you would act in the same situation._"

The child taicho felt his throat tighten. He then hurried to put up the paperwork before hurrying out of the room, forgetting to turn off the light as well as close the door. "_Where the hell can he be?_"

He first went to the fifth division and came across Hiyori and Momo who were bickering. "Have you two seen Ichimaru?"

"Ichimaru hasn't come back from drinking." The blonde looked up at him.

"I thought he stopped."

"I think he started up again." Momo piped up.

Toshiro found himself cursing under his breath and hurried to the bar district, feeling for the man's spiritual pressure. "_Please! I already lost her you moron!_"He then paused, instinct kicking in. He turned his head looking at a particular ally way and hurried forward. "Ichimaru?" No response came from the man. The boy knelt down and nudged the man. "Ichimaru!"

His voice caused others to stop and look and begin to speak. "_What the hell am I supposed to do!_" He turned to one of the shinigami. "What the hell do you think you're doing? _Call_ the fourth division."

The man jumped before hurrying off to take care of the order given from a taicho, at least Toshiro hoped so. Soon though a few members from the fourth division showed up. One checked for a pulse and the boy thought for a minute that they wouldn't be able to find one. The comment though came that they could feel a pulse all though faint. The next thing he knew they were taking the man to the fourth while he stared watching them take him away,

**M**

Somehow he found his way to the fourth division. He wasn't sure which room Ichimaru was placed in, let alone where exactly he was heading. Ukitake however found him. "Hitsugaya?"

The boy looked up. "Ukitake?"

The man gave him a worried look. "You are worried about Gin?' There came a faint smile. "Funny how the other day you were talking about how the two of you didn't get along and you were saying you weren't his councilor."

Toshiro swallowed, feeling he could be upfront with the man about what was going on. "How do you tell one parent that you don't want to lose them like you lost the other parent?"

The frown returned to the older man's face, this time deeper. Ukitake reached out and touched his shoulder, guiding the boy into an empty room so they could speak quietly, closing the door behind them. "How long have you known?"

"I actually knew a few days before you heard me tell Ichimaru that I wasn't his councilor." The boy leaned up against the wall, hugging himself tightly. "He... he was drunk when he told me. I'd gone and confronted him about him avoiding me because I honestly didn't like the fact he was avoiding me and I wanted the truth. I think he meant to say he was avoiding me because it was his fault Matsumoto's dead, but instead the words came out wrong."

"He said it was his fault that your mother was dead." Ukitake let out a deep sigh. "Why did you tell him that you couldn't be his councilor then? Did you do that because you were angry with him?"

"No!" A small hand went up to cover Toshiro's face, his voice choking. "It's just... I was mad at him for getting drunk again as he couldn't even remember telling me what he did the other night. He then started in about how it was his fault Matsumoto was dead and I couldn't hear that. He needs to talk to someone like Unohana or even you about it, not me."

"That is true." Ukitake went and leaned against the door. "Something else is bothering you."

Toshiro uncovered his face. "He came to tell me today." The boy's hand clenched into a fist. "He found out how he had told me and completely freaked out. He went out drinking again. That's why..."

"He's in the condition he's in." The man took out a deep sigh. "Shiro-chan. It's not your fault you know."

"I know that!" Toshiro moved away from the wall to look right at the man, the frustration on his face.

"Then what is it that is bothering you?"

"He feels guilty because he knows it is his fault that Matsumoto is gone."

"I think everyone has figured that out."

"But that isn't what he's most guilty about!" The boy saw the confused look on his face. "What he feels most guilty about is that he couldn't save my mother. I think... I think for some reason she didn't remember she was my mother. She would have told me had she remembered. I think, I think he did all of what he did because he was trying to make it so Matsumoto and I could be a family again and he didn't feel until Aizen was taken care of that we could be a family. He failed."

"That's not though what I'm upset with. Ever since I heard him speak those words that night I couldn't be mad at him nor could I blame him. What's been upsetting me is he's been doing everything he can for me... I know that he has... and now when he needs me the most I can't do _anything_ for him. That's what upsets me the most and what hurts. And now I'm losing him just like I lost her. That isn't fair. What can I do for him?"

"Tell him the truth." The boy startled at the man's words. "You asked me how you tell him that you don't want to lose him like you lost your mother. Just tell him. I think hearing that is what he needs the most right now."

"But what can it do? All it's going to do is make him go into an even bigger depressed funk."

Ukitake took a deep sigh. "It will give him a reason to live."

"How? How does letting him know that he's upsetting me give him a reason to live."

"Because the last thing he wants to do is upset you and what you're going to tell him is that the thought of losing him upsets you." The man held out his hand as Toshiro looked at the ground, touching the boy's shoulder. "Let's go see him."

**M**

Toshiro sat next to Gin, frowning as he did so. The man didn't move for a long time and he kept trying to nod off. Finally though Gin opened his eyes. "Ichimaru?"

"Shiro-chan..." The man closed his eyes. "You do realize that I'm not wanting to see you of all people right now."

The boy bit his lip. "Yeah, well you know very well that I can't be your councilor."

"Well, if you're hear to insult me and tell me what for then go ahead. I do deserve it."

"That's not..." The child captain took a deep breath and then spoke very fast. "In some of the books I've read there is something called family counseling. I can't counsel you because we're both dealing with the same problems, but... I think..."

Gin let out a sigh when the boy couldn't finish. "If that's what you want I'll do it."

"What I want is for you not to die you moron!" Toshiro blurted out the words, only to have the silver haired man turn to look at him. The look caused him to startle and look away. "I mean..."

"Shiro-chan..."

"It's not fair!" Toshiro suddenly gripped the chair. "I've already lost Matsumoto!"

"I got it. I got it. Please understand that I'm honestly the worst father ever."

"Baka! You're the only father ever!" The boy's cheeks puffed out in frustration, only for the child to calm when the man waved him over.

"Come here." The boy got up and then sat next to the man. The man reached out and grabbed the boy's arm. "I'm really sorry for everything. I can't take any of it back and I can't make up for what I've done in a million years. Ironically while I have more time then most people who seek to make things up to people I've also had more time to mess things up as well."

"Ichimaru, I don't _care_ about you making things up to me, so get that out of your thick skull."


End file.
